This is one of the first questions I ask when I step off a plane and onto foreign soil: Do they have squirrels here?

They are everywhere in America. Sometimes it isn’t my very first question, but after a few days in a new country, I’ll suddenly realize I haven’t spotted a single one. Then the mystery takes over—where have all the squirrels been hiding?

I’m currently in Bilbao, Spain, and have found myself asking that exact question. Where are the squirrels?

Maybe I should make a global map or a book documenting all the places where squirrels live, the different kinds you encounter (like the notoriously fat squirrels of Utah), and a comprehensive list of all the regions that don’t have them at all. It really makes you question their motives. Why are they in the United States?