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Sciurus vulgaris
The coat of the red squirrel varies in colour with time of year and location.The underside of the squirrel is always white-cream in colour. The red squirrel sheds its coat twice a year, switching from a thinner summer coat to a thicker, darker winter coat with noticeably larger ear-tufts. The one in the pic had already the winter coat on.
Is found in both coniferous forest and temperate broadleaf woodlands.
Spotted on Nov 23, 2011
Submitted on Jan 5, 2012
2 Comments
Hi David, thanks for your comment :-)
I have checked in my guide but it just comments that they eat the usual nuts, berries, sprouts, and small animals, including birds. For the latter I would be impressed if I would not have seen already grey squirrels chasing and eating small sparrows when I was living in Boston. I bet many people thinks that squirrels are herbivorous when in fact they are omnivorous. As for the tree sap I would not be surprised if they do that here too. The squirrel lives in a wood park where there are maples so I guess by now they may have already figured out which trees provides them some extra candy :-)
The red squirrels here in the Eastern US strategically nip maple limbs to cause sap to collect in tree crotches, returning to eat the sugar-rich liquid after some of the water has evaporated away. Do you know is Eurasian red squirrels do this as well?