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Eastern Gray Squirrel — printable fact sheet
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Eastern Gray Squirrel
Sciurus carolinensis
Sciurus carolinensis is a North American tree squirrel that has become one of the most instructive invasive mammals in Europe. Introduced to Britain and Ireland in the nineteenth century, it has driven the native red squirrel out of nearly all of its former range, and the mechan…
Did you know?
- Eastern Gray Squirrels sometimes practice 'deceptive caching,' pretending to bury food to throw off potential thieves.
- Grey squirrels strip bark from young trees in early summer to reach the sugary layer beneath, and the resulting damage to broadleaf plantations is why British forestry treats them as a serious pest rather than a charming garden animal. The nuts they fail to recover germinate, which makes squirrels significant tree planters despite the damage — a single individual may bury several thousand nuts in an autumn. Their deceptive caching increases sharply when another squirrel or a human is watching, and drops when they believe themselves alone. Pine martens, which have been recovering in Scotland and Ireland, appear to suppress grey squirrels far more effectively than reds, apparently because greys spend more time on the ground and have no evolutionary history with the predator.
What I learned
Draw the eastern gray squirrel
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