February 16, 2001

     Gray Squirrels don't Hibernate

Gray squirrels do not hibernate.  During a cold spell they might stay in their homes for a few days, eating from the supply of seeds they have stored there.

The eastern gray squirrel is about 18 inches long including its bushy tail, and weighs about one pound.  In winter the soft, light-gray fur becomes long and dense.  Albino and melanistic gray squirrels occur and sometimes these mutations are so common that they become the dominant color phase in an area.

Gray squirrels usually have home ranges of about two acres, but some shift their homes as different foods attract them, and may roam over as much as a five-mile area.

The gray squirrel lives in hardwood forests and forests where deciduous trees are mixed with pines and other conifers.  They will also live in city parks and suburbs where large nut and shade trees offer food and denning sites.

In winter, natural holes in older trees probably give the most protection, and if they suit the exacting standards of the wary squirrel, they will become dens; one spot may shelter a group of six or seven squirrels.  When den trees are scarce, leaf nests are built close to the tree trunk in a fork or on a strong limb, usually 30 to 50 feet above ground.

Individual gray squirrels consume about two pounds of food a week or 100 pounds a year.  Usually they are vegetarians, eating various kinds of nuts, seeds, fungi and wild berries, and even bark and twigs when food stores run out in later winter.  In early spring they lick the sweet sap and eat the swelling buds of trees.