No animal in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is as consistently entertaining as gray squirrels. They are, as we say, as much fun as a barrel of monkeys. They are intelligent rodents, nimble for life in trees, lively, adaptable, common, and visible to us people on a regular basis. They are daytime creatures on private lawns in cities and suburbs, in parks, forests, woodlots and hedgerows, and in farmland meadows, places where at least a few trees produce berries, seeds or nuts for them to eat. They are permanent residents wherever they live and active year around. They store many nuts and seeds for winter food in tree crannies or holes they dig in the ground. But some of those fruits in the soil sprout, creating new plants that eventually produce food that future squirrels will ingest.
Gray squirrels readily consume grain in bird feeders, either from the feeders themselves, or from the ground under the feeders. Several squirrels eating bird food can be expensive to the home owner. These squirrels, including the six or more that live in about two acres of lawn studded with several trees in my neighborhood, can solve problems, like how to get on a bird feeder. As a species, they've had eons of experience plotting travel routes along limbs in the tree tops to get from tree to tree to tree. I think they may have glimmers of thought, thinking ahead and reasoning. They certainly do like to explore their surroundings, which I think is a sign of intelligence.
Gray squirrels have gray fur to allow them to blend into their habitat of tree trunks and branches to be invisible to predators. If spotted, however, they scuttle around a limb or trunk to avoid the predator. But red-tailed hawks and great horned owls are big and strong enough to catch and kill gray squirrels. If the reader thinks they have too many squirrels in their neighborhood, tolerate the presence of the red-tails and horned owls.
Like all rodents, gray squirrels have teeth that grow all their lives. They need such teeth to be able to chew hard food, which wears teeth down. But if rodents don't keep their teeth gnawed down, those dentures could grow into the opposite jaw, causing pain and locking the mouth shut which could cause starvation. So each rodent must have a balance between the rate its teeth grow and those teeth being chewed down to be functional, but not too long or too short.
Gray squirrels, like their squirrel cousins, live and rear babies in tree cavities, if they can find empty ones. Barred owls, screech owls, American kestrels, raccoons, opossums and other critters in this area, as elsewhere, are competitors with squirrels for those limited tree hollows. If a squirrel can't find an unused tree cavity, it will make an obvious ball of dead leaves among twigs in the tree tops. This leafy nest is big enough to insulate and protect the squirrel from weather and predation. At night and during days of inclement weather, each squirrel curls inside its large, bushy tail in the middle of its leafy nest.
Gray squirrels can also get into peoples' attics, cabins and other buildings where they can be pests by chewing on everything and dropping poop everywhere. To the squirrels, those human-made places are big tree hollows that provide ample shelter. The best ways to get them out of those buildings is to either live trap them and release them in a woods some distance away or close their entrances during the day when those rodents are outside foraging for food.
Though too many of them can be a pain, gray squirrels are interesting, even funny at times. They are also part of several food chains and start woodlands by burying nuts and seeds in the ground that they don't dig up later. Try to tolerate and enjoy these interesting, little rodents.
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