Friday evening, as I was headed home from work, I stopped to take some photos of a couple of the many, many wildflowers that are blooming right now. While shooting flowers, I happened to look across the road to see this fellow watching me. Needless to say, I completely forgot about the flowers and trained my camera on him. He continued to watch me for a few more seconds and then decided I wasn’t a danger or very interesting and continued across the field he was in towards his home in a stand of planted pines. If you don’t live in Florida or southern Georgia, you may not recognize this guy, but he is a Sherman’s fox squirrel (Sciurus niger shermani). They are a subspecies of the fox squirrel and are now sometimes considered a variation of the southern fox squirrel based on genetic studies.

Sherman’s fox squirrels tend to be bigger than the more common eastern gray squirrels and live in a fairly specific habitat. That habitat must include plenty of longleaf pine and oak trees. They prefer drier areas, especially sandhills and pine savannas, but can sometimes be found in wetter habitats such as pinewood flatlands and the edges of cypress or mangrove swamps. They tend to eat mostly plant material including seeds, nuts, grasses, fruits, fungi, bulbs, roots, and flowers but they have been known to sometimes eat insects and birds eggs. Their favorite foods seem to be acorns and pine nuts. They nest in hollows in oak and pine trees, but spend a fair amount of their time foraging on the ground. They are considered a species of special concern since their population has declined significantly, mainly due to habitat loss. Currently they are protected from hunting, capturing, and harassment of any kind.