Published in McAllen Monitor, November 2, 2024
Story and photos by Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist
Some of the best and funniest entertainment is often found in your own backyard – especially if you have trees and if those trees attract squirrels.
Squirrels are fast and agile. Their quick, twitching maneuverability in trees is fun to watch and photograph. Scientifically, according to animaldiversity.org, that tree climbing expertise is due to their abdominal musculature, sharp recurved claws and well-developed extensors of digits and flexors of forearms (simply put, muscles that allow finger/digit movement). Squirrels have excellent vision, and well-developed senses of hearing and smell.
Trees aren’t just a playing field; they are a squirrel’s best means of escaping from danger. On the ground and in the open, squirrels are vulnerable to predators. In trees, they have a better chance of coming out on the winning end of a chase.
Texas has several species of tree squirrels. Eastern fox squirrels are Texas’ most common squirrel because of their ability to adapt to habitat changes. They prefer forests with a mixture of oak and nut trees, but a city park or residential yard will suit them just fine.
Considered large tree squirrels, fox squirrels measure about 21 inches from nose to tip of tail and weigh less than two pounds. They have gray and black fur on their backs and orange-colored fur on their undersides. The under-tail color is bright cinnamon orange and black on top. The feet are cinnamon colored.
Squirrels are cute and comical, but not good candidates as a family pet; squirrels are rodents. Big rodents with sizeable predators, like racoons, hawks, owls, bobcats, coyotes and domestic dogs and cats.
Being a rodent isn’t all bad, though. All rodents are intelligent animals, and the squirrel tops the list for intelligence, according to several humane pest removal websites. Squirrels display high intelligence through behaviors like using tricks and strategies that help them survive.
In the field, a squirrel will deceive another squirrel by pretending to bury a nut if they know they are being watched and wait until they are alone to actually hide it, according to animals.mom.com and amherstemnetwork.com.
Fox squirrels are active during daylight and sleep in their nests at night. Nests are built high in a tree, usually in forks of strong branches, or close to the trunk, using leaves, twigs, grass, moss and feathers. From below, the nest, called a drey, looks like a large mass of leaves.
Fox squirrels mostly feed early in the morning and late in the day. They are omnivores; their food list is long and varied, ranging from insects, moths, beetles, bird eggs and dead fish. They eat bark, twigs and soil, good sources of minerals and roughage for them, according to lovethegarden.com.
They eat green new growth shoots, buds, leaves, seeds, grains, nuts, fungi and fruit. I once saw a squirrel scarper off with a peach in its mouth as it leapt from our native peach tree. They also eat caterpillars, crickets and larvae. Their favorite foods are acorns, walnuts, and other nuts, mulberry seeds, black sunflower seeds and dried corn on the cob. And, of course, whatever the homeowner puts out for the birds.
Squirrels are good at problem solving no matter how intricate a device humans may configure and erect to discourage squirrels from eating at bird feeders. While some people try to rid their area of squirrels, others cultivate an inviting yard. To attract squirrels or to treat your resident critter, lay out bird seed mixes or apples, berries, oranges, grapes or figs around the base of a tree. Chances are though, your resident squirrel is happy in your yard, eating what is naturally there, including carrion. An interesting article about attracting squirrels to your yard is at this link: https://www.wikihow.com/Attract-Squirrels.
Squirrels really do bury nuts for winter food; they will relocate the nuts, finding them by memory and by smell. They only find a portion of the nuts they bury, thereby contributing to biodiversity in their ecological role. A single squirrel can bury several thousand pecans over the course of three months, according to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department online article. Forgotten nuts and seeds sprout into new plants and trees. Squirrels also spread mushrooms through their scat, according to friscotexas.gov., an online urban wildlife fact sheet by DFW (metroplex) Wildlife Coalition.
Squirrels have no sexual dimorphism, which means, sexes look alike. They do not mate for life. Territory is dependent on food and water; ordinarily one squirrel will occupy one to six acres or more; home ranges of both sexes often overlap.
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Other sources helpful in writing this article were natureworks.org, animaldiversity.org and accuratepest.net
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