Squirrels are cute animals, and their highly industrious behavior is fun to watch. Squirrels hoard food in autumn for the winter months by burying nuts, which they later relocate with their amazing sense of smell. A single squirrel can bury several thousand nuts over the course of 3 months. Squirrels find only a portion of the nuts that they bury and contribute to the propagation of many species of nut trees which grow from the unfound nuts. To protect their winter food stocks from potential thieves, grey squirrels pretend to bury nonexistent nuts and seeds, a behavior which zoologists believe is designed to fool rival squirrels, birds or humans who might be watching their storage activity. Squirrels use their long bushy tails to wrap around their faces for warmth, to help them keep their balance when they are running along tree limbs and even to spread as a kind of parachute when they fall. A squirrel’s tail, as with the tail of a cat, signals its mood. Quick jerks of a squirrel’s tail, for example, means that the squirrel is nervous or upset.
Squirrels are omnivores; they eat a wide variety of plant food, including nuts, seeds, conifer cones, fruits, fungi, green vegetation and insects. Squirrels cannot digest cellulose and must rely on foods rich in protein, carbohydrates and fat. The early spring, when buried nuts begin to sprout and are no longer available for the squirrel to eat, squirrels rely heavily on the buds of trees, especially, those of the Silver Maple. Both ground and tree squirrels are typically diurnal, e.g., most active during the daytime, while flying squirrels tend to be nocturnal, except for lactating flying squirrels and their offspring, which have a period of daytime activity during the summer. Some ground squirrels, such as the thirteen-lined ground squirrel and the white-tailed antelope squirrel, have been discovered to be predatory, feeding on small birds, lizards, rodents and snakes. Black squirrels in Russia have been reported to have engaged in pack behavior in the attack and consumption of a dog.
