Squirrel Facts & Information

You can’t live in the Mid-Atlantic and not know what a squirrel looks like! But just in cases: squirrels are generally small rodents with slender bodies, bushy tails, and large eyes. In general, their fur is short, soft, and silky, and ranges in thickness from species to species. The color of their fur is also highly variable and can be whitish, gray, yellow, red, brown, or even black. It is often assumed that squirrels only eat nuts, but squirrels are omnivores, which means they like to eat plants and meat. Oftentimes squirrels rely on fungi, seeds, nuts and fruits for nutrition, but they will also eat eggs, small insects, caterpillars, small animals and even young snakes. On average, squirrels eat about one pound of food per week. As their food source is highly variable with the weather, squirrels will prepare for colder months, when food is scarce, by burying their food so they have a store of food they can eat when supplies are scarce.

Squirrels have four teeth in the front of their mouth that constantly grow throughout their lives. This ensures that their teeth don’t wear down to nubs from gnawing on nuts and other objects. A group of squirrels are called a scurry or dray. They are very territorial and will fight to the death to defend their area.

Mother squirrels are the most vicious when defending their babies. A female carries her young for a gestation period of 29 to 65 days, depending on the size of the species; smaller squirrels have shorter gestation periods. Mothers give birth to two to eight offspring at one time. Babies are called kits or kittens and are born blind. They depend on their mothers for around two or three months. After seven to eight weeks, the young are weaned. When the kits leave the nest, they don’t travel farther than 2 miles from home.

Not the squirrel you have?