Living with wildlife: Dealing with squirrelly behavior

By Gary Raham
Nature Writer and Illustrator

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Sure, you thought you were feeding the birds. Instead, a rust-colored rodent has hopped across the lawn, scurried up the post supporting the feeder, flipped off its lid, and sits there cramming its cheeks with millet and sunflower seeds.

If the fox squirrel (also known as Sciurus niger) didn't look so rakishly cute sitting there at his dinner, you would be tempted to take a broom to him. Perhaps you do anyway.

In the east, fox squirrels commonly sport a black coat (hence the species name niger). In Michigan, individuals of another species (Sciurus carolinensis) entertained me as a child, usually by chasing each other up and down tree trunks. They, too, had red and black races.

Six fox squirrels provided a déjà vu experience recently as they cavorted around a cottonwood trunk trying to convince potential mates of their enthusiasm for domestic life. Although adult fox squirrels tend to breed in December and January, they will make a go of it in early summer as well. They nest in tree cavities or throw some twigs and leaves together in the crotch of a tree. They give birth to up to five young from February to April and then again from August to September.

Squirrels can boast of a long history in North America, stretching back 50 million years or so to the Eocene. Mice and rats, by contrast, have only been around half that time. Squirrels undoubtedly enjoyed the coast-to-coast and pole-to-pole forests of the Eocene. You may have noticed that if ground routes to your bird feeder are blocked squirrels can jump up to 8 feet sideways from a convenient limb or tightrope walk along a fence top or power line just as if they were jungle vines. They can also jump 4 feet off the ground - not bad for a critter 18 to 28 inches long.

In college I studied a relative, the Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus). By day, I would study the chipmunk's feeding behavior around its peers, dutifully recording social hierarchies and such. At night, at least one chipmunk would come find me in my rustic, academic cabin quarters and collect payment. He easily scaled a wall of the cabin, found a small gap between the top of the wall and the roof, and then descended to my desk where a slightly ajar drawer allowed him access to the chocolate bars I kept there for energy emergencies.

Getting along

My neighbor deflects squirrels from her bird feeder by putting food in an old planter some distance away. Omnivorous squirrels will eat fruits, nuts and vegetables, as well as the occasional insect and even fresh carrion, if that should turn up somewhere.

If squirrels look to be a bit nervous at times, it's because they, in turn, become food for hawks, owls, snakes, coyotes and the occasional aggressive cat or dog. A 1954 field guide says the fox squirrel provides "good hunting and fine table meat."

For those who need to deter squirrels, a CSU Cooperative Extension guide (www.ext.colostate.edu) says you can shoot them (in rural areas), trap them in live traps or use repellents (like moth balls). You can also put a cone baffle above a hanging bird feeder. A 2-foot long cylinder of tin loosely circling a power line will make line walking a real challenge for a squirrel.

Squirrels may sometimes pass the boundary from annoying to dangerous if they get into an attic and start chewing on wiring or if they become carriers of plague, as recently happened in Denver. The plague can be transmitted to humans via flea bites. Squirrels can also serve as hosts for lice, mites and ticks, including the ticks that carry spotted fever.

Squirrels can squeeze through holes 1.5 inches in diameter and can climb vertical brick or masonry walls if they have a roughened surface. Beware of gaps between wall and roof like those in my rustic cabin. Never handle dead or sick-looking squirrels without gloves or other protection.

But for the most part, squirrels provide cheap entertainment for the backyard nature voyeur. Since they commonly forsake their normal habitat along forests and river drainages to visit us, perhaps the experience is mutual.