The Thing About... Squirrels!
The Thing About... Squirrels! by David Heithaus was originally published in the BFEC Newsletter, Vol. 17/No. 3, Summer 2013.
Eastern Gray Squirrel At a Glance
Size: Just under to just over 1 lb. Between 9-12 inches from head to
rump with another 7-9 inches in that big, bushy tail.
Life span: Up to 20 years in captivity but far less
in the wild depending on habitat; it’s possible that a minority of
squirrels pass their first birthday in areas of heavy automobile traffic.
Diet: Nuts, seeds, fruit, insects, green bark, fungi and shed antlers or bone for minerals.
Predators: Humans, coyotes, hawks, owls, raccoons, snakes, domestic dogs and cats.
Activity: Crepuscular, they move around mostly in the early and late periods of the day. They do not hibernate.
Range: All of Ohio, year-round residents.
Reproduction: Mates December-January or May-June with 2-3 young born in February-March or July-August.
Fun facts: Gray squirrels are one of the only mammals that can descend a tree headfirst. To do this, they turn their hind paws almost 180 degrees so the claws can better grip the bark.
Creature Feature
A lot of the time we aim our creature feature at the unusual, awesome, ferocious or bizarre. Much like reality television: it sells. Sometimes though, I fear we overlook the profound among the mundane. So this time around, let’s look past the clawed and armored snapping turtle and the toothless moron hollering and leaping onto its back to the cheers and pistol shots of his entourage... ugh... and focus on something more "everyday:" the noble squirrel. The Eastern gray squirrel actually.
The BFEC provides a home for three distinct types of tree squirrel, one type of ground squirrel and one species of flying squirrel: gray squirrels, fox squirrels, and red squirrels are the climbers; thirteen-lined ground squirrels annoy gardeners; the seldom-seen flying squirrel rules the night sky in a series of short, low velocity sorties.
All of these squirrels belong to the family Sciuridae, a group of mammals that branched off in the Eocene, between 35 and 40 million years ago, when many modern mammals were putting down evolutionary roots. It represented the trend of smaller bodies typical of this relatively warm period of pre-history. This large set of creatures includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels and flying squirrels as well as prairie dogs, marmots (think woodchucks) and chipmunks.
Members of the squirrel family originated in Africa, Eurasia and the Americas and today live on every continent save Antarctica. The adaptability of this family is admirable (unless you’re the continent of Australia and sick of un-invited "visitors") and the 285 distinct species known today live in every type of habitat save the very driest deserts and most extreme polar regions.
Back to the squirrels that you and I ignore every day, the gray squirrel is the most plentiful — especially on Kenyon’s campus and anywhere near a discarded Cheeto.
Eastern gray squirrels are Ohio’s second largest squirrel and are, not surprisingly, gray. They often have lighter fur on their bellies and around their eyes and can sometimes carry a reddish-brown tint on their back as the predominantly gray hairs there may have reddish ends.
Gray squirrels thrive naturally in large expanses of woodland; the more mature to middle-aged hardwoods the better. Considering Ohio’s pre-colonial past as a forest state, it is not surprising that gray squirrels were amongst the most abundant creatures encountered by early settlers. At that time, they were a bit harder to ignore. Some accounts refer to gray squirrels occurring in “armies” that could take “weeks” to pass through an area.
Like bushy-tailed locusts, the gray squirrels did not make a lot of bi-pedal friends during the growing season and early attempts at agriculture could be trying for the newcomers. Always thoughtful and measured in their responses to natural phenomena, the settlers sat down and came up with a reasonable plan to live peacefully in their new, squirrel-infested home. After careful discussion, a law was passed in Ohio that mandated a number of gray squirrel hides that must be turned in with a person’s tax payment. By 1885, laws were passed to protect the few remaining squirrels in the state.
Gray squirrels make their livings in and among trees, where they meet, court, raise young, collect food and nest. When you see gray squirrels running up and down trees in pairs or threes, it is likely that you’re observing a courtship ritual. Once a mate has been selected, the female squirrel will retire to a leaf nest to bare and care for her young. Male squirrels, rodent-like in their attention span, generally scurry away shortly after reproduction. Way to go Y chromosome... Breeding generally occurs twice a year. Gestation lasts about 44 days and litters of 2-3 (as many as six) young are born from February to March or July to August.
Arriving blind, deaf, hairless and toothless, they are completely dependent on their mothers for at least seven weeks. Young squirrels’ eyes begin to open after five weeks and they begin sampling foods like green bark several weeks after that. Generally, it will be at least ten weeks before they descend to ground level and as many as fifteen before they are truly independent. Even so, it is not uncommon to have a squirrel family stick together for the better part of a year.
Like many rodents, gray squirrels reach reproductive maturity quickly. Young males are ready to bump and run at nine to eleven months and females’ single motherhood can begin as early as six to eight months. That aside, gray squirrels are among the most social of Ohio’s squirrels and several squirrels may share a leaf nest or tree den. These nests, known as "dreys" are often visible in the fall as leaf and twig balls constructed high in the branches of a hardwood tree. Communication, both vocal and visual, is common among gray squirrels and can be used for courtship, defense or as a warning to other squirrels. Interestingly, observations suggest that modes of communications between squirrels are impacted by their surroundings with squirrels in noisier, urban and suburban areas preferring visual to vocal communication.
Like other tree squirrels, gray squirrels are "scatter-hoarders." They collect and stash thousands of food caches each year. Depending on available resources, these caches may last a few days or several months. With remarkable spatial sense, squirrels can locate a cache based on landmarks from a distance and smell when within a few inches. That being said, a squirrel never collects each and every cache and those left undiscovered have the chance at germinating and creating the next generation of trees. Squirrels can create "fake" caches if they believe a rival hoarder is watching them. They will dig and cover a hole while concealing the nuts or fruit in their cheeks.
Gray squirrels may not be as regal as a red-tailed hawk or as mysterious and rare as the Eastern hellbender salamander, but I hope we can all agree that there’s more to these oft-ignored neighbors than meets the eye. Plus their scientific name: Sciurus carolinesis means “shadow tail of the Carolinas,” which sounds like some kind of ninja mated with a Native American warrior... don’t look into it too much... The most likely interpretation from the Greek would be more like “lazy rodent from the Carolinas that basks in the shadow of his massive tail... with a Cheeto...” SQUIRREL!!