It’s Beautiful How Adaptable the Eastern Grey Squirrel Is
Like the whitetail deer and the river cooter, the Eastern grey squirrel is a very common animal in the eastern half of North America. And like many other species that have done well, it has adapted to living in close association with humans. Like the house sparrow, the grey squirrel’s ability to live near people has allowed it to colonize many other parts of the world outside it’s native range. Unlike the house sparrow that actually prefers to live near people, grey squirrels can be found both in wild habitats and in city centers. In fact, if there are hardwood trees (or attics) and available food, eastern grey squirrels can generally survive there.
When I first moved here, I was actually rather surprised that there weren’t any grey squirrels in the area. It seemed like a perfect habitat for them, but they were conspicuously absent. I later found out that about two years earlier, the realtor who owned most of the land had sprayed an herbicide in the area that had killed off a lot of the local wildlife as well. At that time, I was still occasionally doing some wildlife rehabilitation projects for the park where I had been working before moving. One project I had been very involved with had been raising orphaned and abandoned baby squirrels, so when I moved to a perfect habitat that wasn’t occupied by other squirrels (squirrels are very territorial, and don’t take well to intruders), it became a great place for releasing some of our babies. I feed the wild birds, so plenty of food was available while they learned to forage for themselves.
Eastern grey squirrels are omnivores and will eat quite a variety of foods including nuts, berries, fruit, grains, and even meat and bones. They are scatter-hoarders, which means that they hoard food in small caches in many, many locations within their range. Some of their caches are temporary, while others are meant for long term food storage. Squirrels also have an amazing memory for where their food caches are. It is estimated that in a year’s time, one squirrel will make thousands of caches, and can remember most of them. It’s believed that they do this through a combination of scent and recognition of land marks. They are also capable of recognizing individuals who feed them and becoming fairly friendly towards those people. Based on all of this, it’s pretty safe to say that squirrels are a reasonably intelligent species. Their intelligence and ability to eat a large variety of foods, in combination with being comfortable living near people are a good part of the reason that they are flourishing in a world where many other species are struggling. What else do you think may be contributing to the success of the eastern grey squirrel?
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