Bruce’s Reviews > North American Tree Squirrels > Status Update

"Adult females that are lactating prefer to nest alone, are particularly aggressive, and possess few rivals of either sex or any age. After marking and releasing juveniles, we have been attacked by the juvenile's mother on three separate occasions." -- page 126. If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!

We suggest that scatterhoarders such as gray squirrels do not simply stick their nuts in the ground and forget about them. Instead, they engage in a range of complex behaviors, moving and managing cashes, much in the same way a financier will manipulate investments to maximize long-term returns. The tree squirrels, we may someday learn, are nature’s ultimate bankers. – page 82

“Consider the diet of the gray squirrel. Its reputation as a granivouus (seed-eating) rodent, while generally accurate, is also somewhat misleading. Although the species has a strong predilection for seeds and fruits of a few primary trees, a complete dietary list for the species includes some 97 species of plants, many species of fungi, insects, bone, baby birds, and even other squirrels on a few occasions.”