What are some facts about squirrels? Understanding the basics of squirrels in one article

The squirrel is a family within the order Rodentia of the class Mammalia, which includes the subfamily Sciurinae and the subfamily Xerinae, characterized by a long, bushy tail. Based on their living environment, they are divided into tree squirrels, ground squirrels and rock squirrels, and together with other closely related animals they are collectively known as the suborder Sciuromorpha, with nearly 35 genera and 212 species worldwide. Let's take a look below at some facts about squirrels!

Morphological characteristics of squirrels

Squirrels are generally small in size, ranging from the African pygmy squirrel at just 7-10 cm long and about 100 grams in weight, to the marmot (groundhog) at 53-73 cm long and about 5-8 kg in weight. Squirrels have no patagium between the front and hind limbs, with strong limbs and sharp claws on the toes that are hooked at the tips, and females are slightly heavier than males. Species in the genus Tamias and the genus Sciurus have cheek pouches on the inner sides of their cheeks that can store a great deal of food. Squirrels are typical small arboreal animals, with slender bodies that appear especially small against their soft, dense, long fur. Body length is 20-28 cm, tail length is 15-24 cm, and body weight is 300-400 grams. The eyes are large and bright, the ears are long, and there is a tuft of hair at the ear tips, especially prominent in winter. Summer fur is dark brown or reddish brown, winter fur is gray, smoky gray or grayish brown, and the belly fur is white. The limbs are slender, with the hind limbs longer, and the fingers and toes have sharp hooked claws. The tail fur is thick and fluffy, often curling back toward the back.

Habitat and distribution of squirrels

The place of origin of squirrels is northeastern China, northwestern China, southeastern China and Europe, and they are distributed throughout the world except in Oceania. In China they are mainly distributed in the mountainous areas of the three northeastern provinces, northeastern Inner Mongolia, northern Hebei and Shanxi, Sichuan, Ningxia, Gansu, **, Hunan, Guizhou and other provinces and regions. Abroad, they range from the Russian Far East, Japan, Korea and northern Mongolia westward all the way to Western Europe. In coniferous forests, squirrels are not abundant every year, and their numbers depend on the abundance of conifer seeds in winter, because their food consists mainly of seeds and fruits, with seeds sometimes accounting for more than 97%.

Food habits of squirrels

Squirrels like to eat plant foods and occasionally eat meat. Their plant foods consist mainly of the dried fruits and seeds of Korean pine, spruce, fir, larch, Scots pine, hazelnut and oak, while their meat foods consist mainly of insects, larvae, ant eggs and other small animals. When food is scarce between seasons, squirrels have other choices. In spring they eat tree buds, in summer they eat mushrooms, raspberries and berries such as bilberries, and by autumn food is extremely abundant, with no shortage of things to eat and whatever they want available, but the tastiest of all is still Korean pine nuts.

Squirrels have a highly developed sense of smell

Squirrels have an extremely developed sense of smell and can accurately distinguish empty pine nuts from full ones. Any seeds at the tip of a pine cone that have been abandoned by squirrels have no kernel; although the shell of such a seed has not been bitten open, the squirrel can tell just by a sniff. Squirrels also have the instinct to store food. In autumn, when Korean pine seeds ripen, squirrels run back and forth carrying pine seeds in their mouths to safe places to hide them, in piles of a few or a dozen or so, buried underground and kept as food for the winter. Although the ground is covered with snow in winter, squirrels can still find their hidden food without difficulty, though a few are missed and cannot be found. But it is precisely because they are buried underground and missed that Korean pine seeds are helped to spread and disperse, promoting natural regeneration.