American Red Squirrel: a two-minute wildlife lesson

Squirrels and Marmots · day 5 of 7

Five facts

1. It strips spruce cones for their seeds, and the dropped scales build up into heaps called middens, up to 12 m wide.
2. It is a loner. In a 19-year study, contact with other squirrels outside family life was always about chasing an intruder away.
3. Yet researchers in Canada saw females adopt orphans. Each one was close family: a niece or nephew, a sibling or a grandchild.
4. A young squirrel needs a territory to survive its first winter. In about 15% of litters, the mother hands over all or part of hers.
5. Each squirrel keeps several nests in its territory, often made of grass high in the branches. Mothers move their young between them.

The quiz

1. What is a red squirrel's midden?

• A burrow deep underground
• A pile of cone scales (correct)
• A nest made of moss
• A pond where it drinks

Scales dropped from eaten cones pile up into middens up to 12 m across.

2. Outside family life, what was its only physical contact with other squirrels in a long study?

• Grooming each other
• Sharing food
• Sleeping in one nest
• Chasing intruders away (correct)

It is highly territorial, and those contacts were all chases of intruders.

3. Which orphans did female red squirrels adopt?

• Any orphan they found
• Only close relatives (correct)
• Only baby chipmunks
• Only orphans from far away

All the adopted orphans were close kin of their adoptive mother.

4. How do some mothers help their young survive the first winter?

• They give them part or all of their territory (correct)
• They hibernate together in one burrow
• They carry them south
• They feed them all winter long

In about 15% of litters, the mother hands over territory to her young.

5. Where does it most often build its nests?

• Deep underground
• Under riverbanks
• In the branches of trees (correct)
• Inside rabbit burrows

Its nests are mostly made of grass in tree branches; it rarely nests below ground.

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