The Squirrel

The Squirrel feeds heavily on pine seeds and leaves piles of cone remaints everywhere. In the fall, it cuts green pine cones and buries them in damp earth, sometimes up a bushel per hole. Other foods eaten or stored are acorns, beechnuts, and other nuts; seeds of hickory, tulip, sycamore, maple, elm; berries; bird's eggs; young birds; fungi, even amanita mushrooms, which are deadly to man. Often the Squirrel will pay frequent visits to a winter bird feeder. The Squirrel mates in late winter. A litter of 3-7 young is born in late March or April, and sometimes they will produce a second litter in late August or September. They mate & nest in the hollows of trees and may steal a birds nest to provide temporary shelter. The squirrel may use many materiels to construct its nest, but it mainly uses shredded tree bark. Squirrels are quite plentiful in the application mountains. There are many subspecies of squirrel.

The Northern Flying Squirrel