Eastern gray squirrel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Eastern gray squirrel |
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| Conservation status | |
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Sciurus
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| Species: |
carolinensis
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| Range in red (excludes introduced populations) |
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The eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is a common type of tree squirrel. It is also known as the grey squirrel in some places. These busy animals are originally from eastern North America. They play a very important role in helping forests grow by burying seeds. However, in some parts of the world, like Europe, they have been introduced and are now seen as an invasive species. This means they can cause problems for local wildlife.
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Where Do Eastern Gray Squirrels Live?
Eastern gray squirrels are originally from the eastern and midwestern United States. They also live in the southern parts of central Canada. You can find them from New Brunswick, through Quebec and Ontario, all the way south to East Texas and Florida. They are also found in Nova Scotia.
These squirrels are very good at adapting to new places. Because of this, they have been introduced to many other areas. This includes parts of the western United States. In 1966, they were brought to Vancouver Island in Western Canada. From there, they have spread widely. They are now considered a big problem for the local environment and the native American red squirrel.
Eastern gray squirrels have also been introduced to countries overseas. This includes Ireland, Britain, Italy, and South Africa. In these places, they often cause problems for the native squirrels. For example, in Ireland and Britain, they have largely replaced the native red squirrels. This is a concern in Italy too, as gray squirrels might spread to other parts of mainland Europe.
What Do Eastern Gray Squirrels Look Like?
Eastern gray squirrels usually have gray fur, but some can look brownish. Their belly is typically white. They have a large, bushy tail. In cities, where there are fewer predators, you might see squirrels that are white or even black. The black squirrels are a special type called "melanistic." They are almost completely black. These black squirrels are common in parts of southeastern Canada.
Black squirrels seem to handle cold weather better than gray ones. When it's very cold, black squirrels lose less heat and can stay warmer. This black color comes from a special gene.
Eastern gray squirrels are about 23 to 30 cm (9 to 12 in) long, not including their tail. Their tail adds another 19 to 25 cm (7.5 to 10 in). Adult squirrels usually weigh between 400 and 600 g (14 to 21 oz). Males and females are about the same size and color.
Their tracks are similar to other squirrels. Like all squirrels, they have four toes on their front feet and five on their back feet. When they run fast, their front paw prints often land behind their hind paw prints.
How Do Eastern Gray Squirrels Behave?
Eastern gray squirrels are known for hiding food. They bury food in many small spots for later. Some of these hiding spots are temporary, used for food they plan to eat in a few hours or days. Others are more permanent, and the food might not be dug up for months. It's thought that each squirrel makes thousands of these hidden food spots every year!
Squirrels have amazing memory for where they hide their food. They use landmarks, both far away and close by, to remember the spots. They also use their sense of smell to find food, even food hidden by other squirrels. However, smell can be tricky if the ground is too dry or covered in snow.
Sometimes, squirrels pretend to bury food if they think another animal is watching them. They will dig a hole, act like they're putting food in it, but actually keep the food in their mouth. Then they cover the empty hole. This clever behavior suggests they might understand what other animals are thinking.
Eastern gray squirrels are one of the few mammals that can climb down a tree head-first. They do this by turning their back feet so their claws point backward. This allows them to grip the tree bark as they go down.
Squirrels build nests called dreys. These nests are usually in the forks of trees and are made of dry leaves and twigs. Dreys are round, about 30 to 60 cm (12 to 24 in) wide. They are often lined with soft materials like moss or feathers to keep them warm. Sometimes, male and female squirrels share a nest during breeding season or in cold winter weather to stay warm. Squirrels might also build nests in the attics or walls of houses. This can be a problem because they might chew on electrical wires. They can also live in hollow parts of tree trunks.
Eastern gray squirrels are most active in the early morning and late afternoon. They tend to avoid the hottest part of a summer day. They do not hibernate during winter.
Squirrel Families
Eastern gray squirrels can have babies twice a year. Younger mothers usually have one litter in the spring. Older, more experienced mothers might have a second litter in the summer if there is plenty of food. Their breeding seasons are from December to February and again from May to June. The first babies are usually born in February or March, and the second in June or July.
When a female squirrel is ready to mate, she can attract many males from far away. The males will compete, and the female might mate with several of them.
Normally, a mother squirrel has one to four babies in each litter. The babies are born after about 44 days. They are weaned (stop drinking milk) around 10 weeks old. They start to leave the nest after 12 weeks. Sadly, only about one out of four baby squirrels lives to be one year old.
Female squirrels can start having babies when they are about one year old. Males are ready to mate between one and two years old. In the wild, eastern gray squirrels usually live for about 6 years, but some can live up to 12 years. In zoos, they can live even longer, sometimes up to 20 years.
How Squirrels Talk to Each Other
Squirrels communicate using sounds and body language. They make many different sounds, like squeaks, low noises, chatters, and a raspy "mehr mehr mehr." They also use their tails to communicate, flicking them in different ways. They even use facial expressions!
Tail flicking and a "kuk" or "quaa" call are used to warn other squirrels about predators. They also use these signals to announce when a predator has left the area. Squirrels also make a soft "muk-muk" sound, which is like a coo or purr. Mother squirrels use this sound with their babies, and males use it when they are trying to attract a female.
How squirrels communicate can change depending on where they live. For example, squirrels in noisy cities might use more visual signals, like tail flicking, because it's harder to hear sounds. In thick forests, where it's quieter, they might use more vocal signals.
What Do Eastern Gray Squirrels Eat?
Eastern gray squirrels eat a wide variety of foods. They munch on tree bark, tree buds, flowers, and berries. They love all sorts of seeds and nuts, especially acorns, walnuts, and hazelnuts. They also eat some types of fungi, like fly agaric mushrooms.
Sometimes, they can damage trees by tearing off the bark to eat the soft layer underneath. In Europe, they often damage sycamore and beech trees. They also eat seeds from trees like cedar, hemlock, pine, and spruce.
Squirrels are known to raid gardens for crops like wheat, tomatoes, corn, and strawberries. They might even eat just the seeds from a tomato and leave the rest! Occasionally, eastern gray squirrels will also eat insects, frogs, small rodents (including other squirrels), and even small birds, their eggs, and young. They also chew on bones, antlers, and turtle shells. They probably do this to get minerals that are missing from their usual diet.
Eastern gray squirrels are quite comfortable around humans. They often live in neighborhoods and visit bird feeders to eat seeds like millet, corn, and sunflower seeds. Some people even put out food for squirrels on purpose. However, in the UK, gray squirrels can take a lot of food from bird feeders, which means less food for wild birds. Also, if squirrels spend more time near feeders, they might find and eat the eggs or babies of small birds nesting nearby.
Who Eats Eastern Gray Squirrels?
Many animals hunt eastern gray squirrels. These include humans, hawks, weasels, raccoons, bobcats, foxes, domestic and feral cats, snakes, owls, and dogs. In South Africa, where they were introduced, they are sometimes hunted by African harrier-hawks.
Where Do Eastern Gray Squirrels Make Their Homes?
In the wild, eastern gray squirrels live in large areas of mature, thick woodlands. These forests usually have many trees that produce nuts, like oaks and hickories, which provide lots of food. They prefer oak-hickory forests over pine forests because there's more food. This is why they are found only in certain parts of eastern Canada, not in the colder boreal forests.
Eastern gray squirrels usually build their dens on large tree branches or inside hollow tree trunks. They have also been known to use abandoned bird nests for shelter. They line their dens with soft materials like moss, dried grass, and feathers to keep them warm.
Near people, eastern gray squirrels can be found in parks and backyards in cities. They also live on farms in rural areas.
Introduced Squirrels Around the World
The eastern gray squirrel has been introduced to many places outside its native home. In western North America, they are now found in British Columbia and Calgary, Alberta, in Canada. In the United States, they are in Washington, Oregon, and parts of California, like San Francisco. They have become the most common squirrel in many cities and suburbs in western North America.
Around the year 1900, eastern gray squirrels were also brought to South Africa, Ireland, Hawaii, Bermuda, Madeira Island, the Azores, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
In South Africa, they mostly live in cities and farming areas. They eat acorns and pine seeds there. They don't usually spread into the natural wild areas because they can't use the native plants for food. They also don't meet native squirrels there because those squirrels live in different parts of the country.
Gray squirrels were first brought to Britain in the 1870s. They spread quickly across England, Wales, and parts of Scotland. In Britain, they have almost completely replaced the native red squirrels. Gray squirrels are bigger than red squirrels and can store more fat, which helps them survive winter better. They also have more babies and can live closer together. Gray squirrels can also carry a virus called squirrelpox virus. Red squirrels have no protection against this virus. When an infected gray squirrel brings squirrelpox to red squirrels, the red squirrel population declines much faster.
In Ireland, the red squirrels have not been replaced as quickly because there was only one introduction of gray squirrels. There are now plans to control the gray squirrel population in Ireland to help the native red squirrels. Eastern gray squirrels have also been introduced to Italy. The European Union is worried that they will also replace the red squirrel in other parts of Europe.
Why Red Squirrels Are Disappearing
In Britain and Ireland, eastern gray squirrels don't have many natural predators, except for the European pine marten, which is rare in England and Wales. This has helped their population grow very fast. Because of this, they are seen as a pest. There are plans to reduce their numbers. In areas where small groups of red squirrels still live, like the islands of Anglesey and the Isle of Wight, there are programs to remove gray squirrels. This helps the red squirrel populations recover.
The main reason eastern gray squirrels are replacing red squirrels is that they are better at surviving and competing. Eastern gray squirrels are usually bigger and stronger. They can store more fat for winter. This means they can get more of the available food, which makes it harder for red squirrels to survive and have babies. The squirrelpox virus is also a big problem. Red squirrels get very sick and often die from it, but gray squirrels carry the virus without getting sick. Red squirrels are also less able to handle changes to their habitat, while gray squirrels are more adaptable.
A similar situation has happened in western North America. The native American red squirrel has been largely replaced by the eastern gray squirrel in parks and forests.
Interestingly, there were concerns in 2008 about the future of the eastern gray squirrel in Britain. This was because the black (melanistic) form started to spread. In the UK, if an eastern gray squirrel is caught, it is against the law to release it back into the wild.
In the late 1990s, Italy tried to stop the spread of gray squirrels, but animal rights groups stopped this effort. So, gray squirrels are expected to spread into France and Switzerland in the next few decades.
Images for kids
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A brown eastern gray squirrel in Union Square, NYC.
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A black (melanistic) eastern gray squirrel.
See also
In Spanish: Ardilla de las Carolinas para niños
