Photo copyright © Jim Jung and licensors. All rights reserved.

Gray Squirrels

If you think the Gray Squirrels act squirrelly in the winter, you're right. These arboreal rodents can be observed chasing one another up and down trees, over lawns and across roads and highways with a single-mindedness bordering on distraction as the number of road-killed squirrels at this time of year attests.

Young will appear in a month or so born in hollow trees and leafy squirrel nests. They'll feed on milk exclusively for another month before being weaned in early spring just as the first tender and highly nutritious buds of spring appear. An auspicious time to be born.

Fox Squirrels and Gray Squirrels

Our two diurnal (active during the daytime) squirrel species - the Fox and the Gray - graphically illustrate an important ecological precept called the Exclusionary Principle. Simply stated, it says that two species with similar or identical habitat requirements will never coexist in the same habitat - one or the other will become dominant and prevent the other from gaining a foothold in any territory it holds.

To see this principle in action just visit any series of towns in our area and keep an eye on the local squirrel population. Any given town will have either Gray Squirrels or Fox Squirrels (Sciurus niger), but never both species together. Larger cities may have both species within their political boundaries but you'll find the same principal at work there as well. One section of the city may host Grays while another section, just next door, will host only Fox Squirrels. Ecologists have (so far) been unable to explain why any particular town hosts its particular species, since seemingly identical habitat can theoretically support either species. Most ecologists explain it as a matter of whichever species got there first.

Away from towns Gray Squirrels tend to be dominant in closed, maturing woodlands; while Fox Squirrels tend to be found in more open situations.

Gray Squirrels are our smallest diurnal squirrel species. They eat shoots, buds, leaves and, of course, nuts which they squirrel away by burying underground. More importantly their memories aren't all that good, so many of the nuts they conveniently plant sprout thereby providing a future food source for the squirrels and perpetuate the continued existence of the forest.

Photo copyright © Jim Jung and licensors. All rights reserved.

Squirrel Migrations

Before our civilization cleared the ancient, old growth forests Gray Squirrels were remarkably abundant, and this species was famous for its impressive population explosions and resulting one-way migrations. Like the proverbial Lemming, when populations rose above a certain level due to several good years in a row large numbers of Gray Squirrels would suffer a sort of mass hysteria and with millions of their fellows all start moving in the same arbitrary direction. There are several reports of squirrel migrations encountered on the Ohio River in the early part of the 19th century when large numbers of these animals would fling caution to the wind and attempt to swim the river en masse. Most didn't make it, but it solved the population problem.

Today, with most of the forests gone and with Gray Squirrel populations at only a fraction of their former numbers such large-scale migrations are a thing of the past.

Young Squirrels Disperse

However, the young Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis)in our region still leave mom at the end of summer, striking off into the wide world to seek their fortune and a territory they can call their own. Most won't make it and wind up becoming food for hawks, owls and domestic cats which, after all, have to eat too.

Offsite Links:

• The Squirrel Almanac
• "The Squirrel Place"

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