Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
3
A Sylvan Odd Couple: The Red Squírrel and the Gray
MYTHS
Red squirrels drive out gray squirrels.
Red squirrels castrate gray squirrels.
Gray squirrels remember where they bury nuts.
Squirrels are vegetarians.
Gray squirrels are very tame.
THE RED SQUIRREL
(TAMIASCIURUS HUDSONICUS)
AND THE EASTERN GRAY SQUIRREL
(SCIURUS CAROLINENSIS)
ARE BOTH TREE SQUIRRELS AND LIVE IN PROXIMITY TO
EACH OTHER THROUGHOUT A WIDE STRETCH OF TERRITORY, YET THEY DIFFER
WIDELY IN SIZE, MODE OF LIVING, FOOD AND HABITAT REQUIREMENTS, AND MOST
ESPECIALLY IN PERSONALITY.
These two tree-dependent rodents inhabit the same tracts of forest land from the southern edge of the
eastern Canadian provinces down the Atlantic coast to Virginia, west to Illinois, and back north through
parts of the Dakotas; narrow bands also extend southward into Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas.
All or parts of some five Canadian provinces and twenty-four of the lower forty-eight states harbor both
red and gray squirrels.
Within this broad area, two of the most common and enduring of all wildlife myths have sprung up.
It's an article of faith with many people that “the reds drive out the grays,” and, even worse, that the
reds castrate the male grays.
While it's true that red squirrels sometimes chase their big relatives, they hardly do it with the in-
tention of “driving them out” in the sense of excluding them from a large area. Far more than gray
squirrels, reds are highly territorial in regard to their dens and caches of food. Thus, if a gray squirrel
approaches one of these too closely, the red may chase it for a short distance. Once the gray vacates the
small area around den or cache, however, the red has no further interest in pursuing it.
