by Brent Lennox
Calgary is home to many species, including three types of tree squirrels. While the red and flying squirrels are native to the area, the Eastern Grey Squirrel is the most common. These grey, black, and brown coloured critters are originally from Eastern North America but were introduced into city parks in western Canada in the 1900s. Ever since their introduction to Calgary, they have outcompeted the native red and flying squirrels to become our resident urban acrobats, much to the delight of the Richmond/Knob Hill Rascals (i.e., our resident pet population).
While we often see squirrels running madly around the neighbourhood as they stash food for the winter, squirrels seem to disappear as the days get shorter and colder. While you might think they hibernate for the winter, they are actually just less active during the colder months. The most likely place to find a squirrel during the winter is in their tree nests, in which they sleep for around 20 hours a day and huddle together in tight groups to stay warm. When they get a hankering for a nutty snack, they take advantage of the light and warmth in the middle of the day and unearth their food caches throughout the neighbourhood that they have worked so hard to store in preparation for the warmer months. To track their paths to their food caches, look out for their exclamation mark-like tracks in the snow!
Fun facts about squirrels:
- Red squirrels are native to our ecosystem, but after our area started undergoing development, settlers brought grey squirrels from the east
- Grey squirrels have almost completely outcompeted our native red squirrel population as time has gone by
- Calgary is home to a species of flying squirrel! These squirrels are even more acrobatic than the ones we see running the electricity wire tight ropes in our communities
- A squirrel’s teeth never stop growing!
- Squirrels can reach a top speed of about 25 km/hour!! They should watch out for photo-radar tickets in our playground zones!
- Grey squirrels only find about 25% of the nuts that they bury for storage
- The nuts they don’t find grow into trees!
- Squirrels use tail movements to communicate with their friends
- Squirrels prefer to run up and down with their heads pointed in their direction of movement, but if they are scared, they will run sideways to get away from a competitor or a predator
- If attacked, a squirrel can lose its tail and even a few end vertebrae and still survive!
- Sometimes, squirrels will pretend to bury nuts to throw off potential squirrel thieves
