They store nuts and seeds at the end of summer to eat throughout the winter. Minks, weasels, bobcats, raptors, red foxes and other predatory animals prey on eastern gray squirrels. The squirrels will emit a warning call to let other squirrels know predators are near.
They are hard to capture because they can climb and jump among trees quickly and easily. Mating occurs twice per year, in December to February and again in May to June. Females nest alone while pregnant. After 44 days, the female gives birth to 2 to 3 blind, naked young.
The female cares for her young until they are weaned at about 10 weeks old. About Grey Squirrels These diurnal rodents adjust easily to new types of environments, although they are especially common in woodlands and forests. Average Life Span in the Wild The average life span of grey squirrels is extremely brief -- generally only between 11 and 12 months, according to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. In Captivity A single female grey squirrel that resided in a captive environment greatly outlived the typical life span of her species, making it to over 20 years old, reports the University of Michigan's Animal Diversity Web.
Survival Considerations Although grey squirrels are hardy mammals, many different things can affect how long they survive. What Does an Ermine Eat?
Young of the late summer litters may remain with the female during the winter. Sexual maturation takes place during the following spring or summer. Mean life expectancy for a gray squirrel at birth is years; the average life span of an adult is closer to 6 years. Records for maximum life span are 12 years in the wild and 20 years in captivity. Predators: The typical predators of small to medium-sized mammals prey upon gray squirrels.
Barkalow, F. Soots, Jr. Life span and reproductive longevity of the gray squirrel, Sciurus c. Journal of mammalogy, Horwich, R. The ontogeny of social behavior in the gray squirrel Sciurus carolinensis. Verlag Paul Pary, Berlin, Hamburg. Johnson, C. Part I. Roosevelt Wildlife Bulletin, 4 Uhlig, H. The gray squirrel in West Virginia. Bulletin No. Charleston, West Virginia Conservation Commission. Encompassing over 15, acres of Adirondacks wildlands , ESF's Newcomb Campus offers incomparible opportunities for visiting, learning and research.
Newcomb is the yearround home to three major centers of study and public education:. Home ranges are generally larger in the summer. The larger the home range territory, the fewer eastern grey squirrels that live there. Squirrels occupy two types of homes. One is a permanent tree den.
The other is a nest of leaves and twigs on a tree branch 30 to 45 feet above the ground. Females nest alone when pregnant and lactating.
During these times females are especially aggressive and are avoided by others. Eastern grey squirrels communicate among themselves with a variety of vocalizations and postures, such as tail flicking.
They also have a keen sense of smell. They use their sense of smell to determine many things about their neighbors. Some of the things they can determine are levels of stress and reproductive condition. Eastern gray squirrels feed mostly on nuts, seeds, flowers and buds of various trees. These trees include maple, mulberry, hackberry, elm, and dogwood. The seeds they eat usually come from cedar, hemlock, pine, and spruce.
They also eat a variety of herbaceous plants and fungi. Crops, such as corn and wheat, are also eaten, especially in the winter. Insects are eaten in the summer and are especially important for young squirrels. Cannibalism has been reported, and squirrels may also eat bones, bird eggs and nestlings, and frogs.
They bury food in winter caches using a method called scatter hoarding. They later locate these caches using both memory and smell. Female eastern grey squirrels need extra protein and minerals from their foods when they are pregnant and nursing young. They may get these from insects, meat, and bones. They also need extra water during nursing. Squirrels can get some moisture from the foods they eat but generally need to drink standing water, which they can get from streams, ponds, puddles, or from small pools of water that collect in tree holes during rains.
Eastern grey squirrels are preyed on by many predators, including American mink, other weasels, red foxes, bobcats, grey wolves, coyotes, lynx, and birds of prey, such as red-tailed hawks. They emit warning calls to warn neighboring squirrels of the presence of predators.
Their extreme agility in the trees makes them difficult to capture. Ruff and Wilson, Eastern grey squirrels are important members of the forest ecosystems in which they live. They eat a lot of seeds. Their seed-caching activities may help disperse tree seeds. They may help to distribute truffle fungal spores when they eat truffles.
They also prey on other animals in the ecosystem where they live.
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