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Eastern Gray Squirrel

Sciurus carolinensis

Description:

The eastern gray squirrel or grey squirrel (depending on region) (Sciurus carolinensis) is a tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus native to the eastern and midwestern United States, and to the southerly portions of the eastern provinces of Canada. The native range of the eastern gray squirrel overlaps with that of the fox squirrel (Sciurus niger), with which it is sometimes confused, although the core of the fox squirrel's range is slightly more to the west.

Habitat:

In the wild, eastern gray squirrels can be found inhabiting large areas of mature, dense woodland ecosystems, generally covering 40 hectares of land.[16] These forests usually contain large amounts of dense understory vegetation that provides them sufficient amount of food sources and favorable shelters. Oak-hickory hardwood forests are preferred over coniferous forests.[7] Eastern gray squirrels generally prefer constructing their dens upon large tree branches and within the hollow trunks of trees. They also have been known to take shelter within abandoned bird nests. The dens are usually lined with moss plants, thistledown, dried grass, and feathers. These perhaps provide and assist in the insulation of the den, used to reduce heat loss. A cover to the den is usually built afterwards.

Notes:

This young, juvinile Eastern Grey Squirrel showed up one evening on a low branch of a tree ithat sits in the middle of our backyard deck. We didn't see him again for a long time after that. Maybe he got in trouble with his Mom. Then there were three young squirrels that started coming around, he might've been one of them.

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LaurieWinters
Spotted by
LaurieWinters

St. Petersburg, Florida, USA

Spotted on May 14, 2014
Submitted on Jun 14, 2015

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