Fun Facts About Squirrels

Did you know that there are actually over about three hundred varieties of squirrels around the world? What a cool squirrel fact! Of course, in North America there are only about ten, but around the world, the species of the squirrels equal up to about three hundred different ones!   

There are many different sizes of squirrels.  For example, there is the gray squirrel which can be up to three times as large as the red squirrel but quite a great deal smaller than a fox squirrel.  A fox squirrel is by far the largest of the squirrel family and even though the size of an adult gray squirrel is about eighteen inches long and can weight about a pound, the fox squirrel still has the gray squirrel beat! 

Generally all squirrels live in trees, basically in the holes of trunks or even in the treetop in abandon crow’s nests.  Squirrels will usually start looking for a nest when they start to mate, which is when they are about a year old.  It usually takes about six weeks from the time that the squirrels mate until there are baby squirrels running around.  Baby squirrels are called kittens and kittens are born only twice a year.  Once in the spring time and once at the end of the summer; it is not unusual for the female squirrel to have about two to five kittens. 

When it comes to a squirrel’s diet, the facts are they will eat acorns, wheat, fruit, bird’s eggs, mushrooms, berries, oak buds, corn, insects, moths, nesting birds and especially nuts of any kinds.  Squirrels will typically gather and save a lot of their food all year round but this is definitely true when it comes to the autumn time.  When you see them collecting all their nuts just before winter it is because they are getting ready for winter and they want to make sure that they have enough food to last them.  After they have buried all of their food and when winter comes and goes, the squirrel will wake up out of hibernation and go look for the food they buried! 

Squirrels can generally live anywhere from ten to twelve years but after about six years, they are considered old squirrels.  Some of the most common ways that squirrels die is being attacked by their natural predators or they can also die from traffic.  Many squirrels do not make it up to the ten year mark due to traffic and while it is not our fault most of the time, we definitely need to keep our eyes peeled for these amazing creatures.