Eastern gray squirrel

It is diurnal, with strongest activity in morning and late afternoon. It uses habitats including hardwood and mixed forests, parks, campuses and wooded neighbourhoods. It feeds on acorns, hickory nuts, seeds, buds, fungi, fruit and occasional animal matter.

Tree squirrels travel through the canopy and on the ground, using memory and scent to recover buried food. They also maintain more caches than they can retrieve.

Scatter-hoarded nuts that are never recovered can germinate, making squirrels important seed dispersers.

By burying nuts and failing to recover some of them, tree squirrels disperse oaks, hickories and other large-seeded trees. They are also important prey for hawks, owls, foxes and snakes.

Scatter-hoarding spreads risk across hundreds of small caches and incidentally plants part of the next generation of forest.

Breeding — tree squirrels commonly have a winter breeding period and a second summer period.
Gestation — about 44–45 days.
Nestling — young are born naked and blind in a cavity or leaf nest and remain there for roughly 6–8 weeks.
Independence — juveniles begin foraging on their own after weaning but may remain near the natal range for weeks.

• Inspect tree cavities and leaf nests before pruning or removing trees, especially during nesting seasons.
• Use baffles rather than poisons when squirrels reach bird feeders.
• Cap chimneys and repair roof openings after confirming no squirrels or young remain inside.
• Keep cats indoors or supervised; young squirrels spend time on trunks and the ground while learning routes.

• A squirrel that approaches people is tame. Animals fed by people can lose normal distance without becoming domesticated.
• Every leaf nest is empty in winter. Dreys can be used for resting and may hold young at other times of year.
• Squirrels remember every nut they bury. They recover many caches, but unrecovered seeds are part of how they disperse trees.

• eastern-fox-squirrel
• Groundhog
• Southern flying squirrel