Squirrels are leaders in adaptation, able to survive urban settings well. These animals have great skills: highly social natures, masterful nest builders, industrious food finders, and the good sense to sleep in, and lie in sunbeams.
A group of squirrels is called a “scurry.”
The word, squirrel, comes from the Greek word, skiouros. It means “shadow tailed.” The squirrel positions its tail over its head in rain or on hot sunny days.
Squirrels are a member of the rodent family. The next time you hear someone knock the rodent family, remind them that rodents are the most diverse group of animals in the world. Included are voles, mice, beavers, gophers, and porcupines. These are smart, hard-working animals.
The male squirrel is the cleanest animal in the rodent family. He spends twice the amount of time grooming compared to the female.
The word rodent comes from Latin, rodere, meaning “to gnaw.” There are 273 species in the squirrel family. This includes chipmunks, marmots, and prairie dogs. There are squirrels in the mountains, arctic, prairies and deserts.
The Douglas squirrel is in the tree squirrel family and is commonly seen in our yards and parks in Oregon. Tree squirrels date back to approximately 28 million years ago.
Douglas squirrels are also called the chickaree or pine squirrel. It was named the “Pillillooeet” by indigenous people because that is how it sounds when making its alarm call.
Tree squirrels are doing better in numbers than ground squirrels. Humans don’t like that the ground dwellers munch on our crops. However, it is also true that these same squirrels feed heavily on insect pests, and their burrowing actually aerates the soil.
One of the main differences between ground squirrels and tree squirrels is the tail. The tree squirrels have much longer and bushier tails as they are a key part of their ability to balance when jumping around in trees or racing across utility wires.
High performance athletes, squirrels have long flexible toes; four in front and five in back. Gray squirrels can run up drain spouts and brick walls.
Douglas squirrels are known for being talkative and boisterous with communication. In addition to many voice signals, their tails are like flags, with different positions and movements to send messages. They are closely related to the red squirrel and have a similar look. The Douglas is described as chestnut brown with a pumpkin-colored underside.
These squirrels are happiest living in coniferous forests. They like to eat the cones and will leap from limb to limb, nipping off cones to let them fall to the ground. Once they’ve dropped enough, they go down the tree to round them up and collect and place in a designated food storage, or what is called, a midden. A squirrel’s sense of smell is so good they can find nuts under snowdrifts.
They are highly intelligent, enough to know how to pretend to store food if another squirrel or bird is watching. They will act out the digging and placement of a peanut, for example, to hide where the food really is. Sort of like a fake pass, or the magic trick where you hide the puff ball under one or none of the cups.
They also eat green vegetation, acorns, mushrooms, insects, and fruits. And of course, we know they like birdseed! They have also been known to eat eggs or baby birds. They like to dry mushrooms a few days before eating them.
Douglas squirrels are monogamous. A mother has an average of 3 to 6 young, which are called pups, kits, kittens. Adult females are does; males are bucks. They build nests from twigs, lichen, and moss in the summer months and move indoors to deserted woodpecker nests in the winter. During the coldest days of winter, squirrels will stay in their nests, sleeping for several days.
In Folklore terms, they are seen as being planners, prepared, organized, savvy, and trusting. Negatives are passing gossip, probably because they are so verbal.
This article appeared in the fall 2020 issue of Take Root magazine.
Scurry…..neat!