Eastern fox squirrel

Fox squirrels are big and deliberate, spending much of their time on the ground, where they forage for fallen seeds and nuts. They prefer open woods with scattered large trees rather than dense forest, and in the South they are strongly tied to longleaf and other pine savannas.

They bury nuts in scattered caches and find many of them again by smell. Nests are leafy "dreys" high in trees or dens in tree cavities.

Fox squirrels plant trees. Nuts and pine seeds they bury and never recover sprout far from the parent tree, helping oaks, hickories and pines spread across open woods.

They also carry an oddity: a harmless inherited condition makes their bones and teeth reddish-pink, so pink they glow under ultraviolet light.

Mating — midwinter and, in many areas, again in early summer
Gestation — about 44 to 45 days
Litter — usually two to four young, born hairless and blind
Eyes open — at about five weeks old
Leaving the nest — at about seven to eight weeks old
Independence — at about three months old
Lifespan — several years in the wild

• Tree trimming between late winter and summer can bring down nests with young.
• Cars kill many fox squirrels, which cross open ground more than gray squirrels do.
• A young squirrel on the ground may have fallen from a nest; its mother will often retrieve it if it is left at the base of the tree and people and pets stay away.

• A black squirrel is a different species. In the Southeast, black is one of the fox squirrel's normal colours.
• Squirrels forget where they bury nuts. They find many by smell and memory; the ones they miss become trees.
• A baby squirrel on the ground needs to be taken in right away. The mother often comes back for it within hours.

• Eastern gray squirrel
• American red squirrel
• Southern flying squirrel