Information On The Eastern Gray Squirrel

The Eastern Gray Squirrel has predominantly gray fur but it can have a brownish color. It has a white underside and a large bushy tail. Particularly in urban situations where the risk of predation is reduced, both white- and black-colored individuals are quite often found. The head and body length is from 9.1 to 12 in, the tail from 7.5 to 9.8 in and the adult weight varies between 14 and 21 oz.
Like all squirrels, the eastern gray shows four fingers on the front feet and five on the hind feet. The hind foot-pad is often not visible in the track. When bounding or moving at speed, the front foot tracks will be behind the hind foot tracks. The bounding stride can be two or three feet long.
The eastern gray squirrel is a scatter-hoarder; it hoards food in numerous small caches for later recovery.Some caches are quite temporary, especially those made near the site of a sudden abundance of food which can be retrieved within hours or days for re-burial in a more secure site. Others are more permanent and are not retrieved until months later. It has been estimated that each squirrel makes several thousand caches each season. The squirrels have very accurate spatial memory for the locations of these caches, and use distant and nearby landmarks to retrieve them. Smell is used once the squirrel is within a few centimeters of the cache.

The Eastern gray squirrel is one of very few mammalian species that can descend a tree head-first. It does this by turning its feet so that the claws of its hindpaws are backward pointing and can grip the tree bark^.
Eastern gray squirrels build a type of nest, known as a “drey”, in the forks of trees. The drey consists mainly of dry leaves and twigs. Squirrels may also nest in the attic or exterior walls of a house, where they may be regarded as a pest, and as a fire hazard due to their habit of gnawing on electrical cables. In addition, squirrels may inhabit a permanent tree den hollowed out in the trunk or a large branch of a tree.
Eastern gray squirrels are more active during the early and late hours of the day, and they tend to avoid the heat in the middle of a summer day. They do not hibernate.
Eastern Gray Sq