Red Squirrel Facts

Red Squirrel Facts

1. The scientific name of the red squirrel is Sciurus vulgaris.

2. Red squirrels are not always red in colour! They can also be brown, almost black, or even quite grey, and can become blonde due to bleaching by the summer sunlight. The chest and stomach are white.

3. As members of the rodent family, they have large incisor teeth, kept sharp by constant gnawing.

4. Tree squirrels have big, bushy tails that they use for many things, primarily balance. It enables the squirrel to maneuver quickly without falling. If a squirrel should fall, the tail acts as a sort of parachute and  cushion. The tail also helps keep the squirrel warm in cold weather, and can be used to communicate with other each other and other animals.

5. Native tree squirrel species are territorial and will defend areas that average five acres ormore. As they do not hibernate during the winter, they forage year-round. To ensure there is enough food, they make caches of nuts and grains, burying them at various sites in their territory. It is estimated each squirrel makes up to several thousand caches each season! Amazingly, they have very accurate spatial memories for the locations of their caches and use distant and nearby landmarks, as well as smell, to retrieve them.

Drey

6. Drey: The proper name for a squirrel nest.

7. The grey squirrel is able to out-compete the red in almost every phase of their life history. It is also thought that the grey squirrel is more resistant to disease than the red .Neither grey nor red squirrels hibernate.

8. Neither grey nor red squirrels hibernate. Both are therefore active throughout the winter months periods of extreme weather.

9. However, when they are forced spend several days in the drey without feeding, can have severe consequences for the red squirrel, which cannot store as much fat as the grey.

10. In 1984 in East Anglia, a squirrel was found to be infected with a disease that was identified as a parapoxvirus.

11. This disease is fatal to red squirrels, but it is carried by the grey squirrel.

12. A squirrel lives in a nest high in a tree made from woven twigs, lined with leaves, grass, moss, feathers and fur. This is called a drey, is a similar size to a football, and located against the tree trunk.

13. Squirrels eat a wide variety of foods including seeds, nuts, berries, flowers, buds, shoots and fruit from many trees and shrubs. They also eat fungi and insects.

14. Squirrels store nuts and seeds in the ground in autumn by burying them.

15. They can be either right or left handed while they eat a pine cone!

16. Squirrels do not hibernate over winter, but do stay in their dreys during bad weather.

17. Squirrels moult their coat twice a year, once after winter to provide a thin coat for summer, and then in the late summer to provide a thicker and warmer coat before the colder winter weather sets in.

18. They lose their distinctive ear tufts once a year, when they moult in late autumn.

19. Young squirrels are called kittens or ‘kits’.

20. Squirrels can have two litters of kittens each year, with 3 - 4 kittens in each litter.

21. Kits are born with no hair or teeth, and with their eyes closed. After around seven weeks they look just like small versions of their parents and are ready to leave the drey.

22. An adult red squirrel weights around is 275-350 grams. This is the same as four Mars bars or a packet of biscuits!

23. The Length of a red squirrels body is 20-22 cm and its tail is 17-18 cm long.

24. They have four fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot.

25. Red squirrels can live to six years of age.

26. Squirrels are very athletic and can hang upside down!

27. And they can swim!

“This is a Tale about a tail--a tail that belonged to a little red squirrel, and his name was Nutkin.”           ~Beatrix Potter~