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by Kevin Strauss
Amid the melting snow, slushy roads and warm weather of last week, several animals became more active, taking advantage of the brief respite from the cold, but I noticed at least one species that was interested only in finding more food. For the red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) March is the season of love, or at least reproduction.
While on an afternoon walk, I saw a half dozen different red squirrels chasing each other across the roads and up trees and telephone poles.
While they are called “red” squirrels, this is just to distinguish them from gray squirrels, our other common species in much of the United States. Red squirrels are actually more of a rusty red or red-orange color with white or gray-white bellies. They are the smallest of our squirrels, at only about 13 inches in length, including their long tails. But they make up for what they lack in size with their energy and loud voices. The red squirrel’s high “tcher-r-r-r” echoes across the northwoods whenever a resident red spots an intruder in its territory. Of course, while a red squirrel is bold, it isn’t stupid; it makes it’s call from the safety of a high tree branch.
The highly territorial red squirrel lives a solitary existence with the exception of a brief mating period and the time when a mother raises her young. Red squirrels have 3-7 young in a litter in March or April. Here in the northwoods, young are more likely to be born in late March or April.
Right now, with mating season in high gear, we see red squirrels chasing each other across the neighborhood. Those chases are either males chasing females, or a resident squirrel (male or female) chasing off intruders of the same gender.
When they aren’t looking for a mate or food, red squirrels spend time in their nests, especially during the cold snaps that are sure to follow this warm spell. Red squirrels make several nests in their 1-2 acre territories. They often build their stick and leaf nests in a crotch in a tree, but also build them in hollow trees or holes in the ground.
While mating is at the top of their minds right now, red squirrels also need to eat in the spring. Lucky for them, they stored evergreen cones last summer and fall in large food caches in their territory. In a good territory, a cache might contain up to 16,000 cones, but urban squirrels won’t have caches this large. In some cases, forest rangers have raided red squirrel caches for cones they could use for reforestation projects. They would replace the seeds with an alternate food like corn. In addition to seeds, red squirrels also eat bird eggs, fledglings, and mushrooms, including some mushrooms that are poisonous to humans like the deadly amanita mushroom.
While these chattery squirrels might seem bold, they still have a precarious existence. Only a quarter of red squirrels surviving to adulthood (one year old). The rest fall prey to owls, pine martens, hawks and other predators. But despite these dangers, red squirrels still defend their territory with their loud calls in the woods.
So the next time you are outside, take a moment to watch these bold and clever creatures scurrying through the trees.
The Ely Timberjay
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