Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren fog Obam. Here. The American red squirrel comes,
Speaker 1: as advertised, somewhat found in the Rocky Mountains parts of Alaska,
Speaker 1: southern and central Canada, the Great Lakes region, and the
Speaker 1: northeastern United States. This rodent is as American and Canadian
Speaker 1: as it gets. True to its common name. The animal
Speaker 1: does have some rusty red fur. Yet the American red
Speaker 1: squirrel does certain things that may surprise you. We're talking
Speaker 1: nest rating, bird eating and premeditated infanticide. It's a squirrel
Speaker 1: eat squirrel world out there. Zoologists have tallied up more
Speaker 1: than two hundred distinct squirrel species, from the African pygmy
Speaker 1: squirrel to the Indian giant squirrel. If you live in
Speaker 1: the eastern or midwestern United States, then you're probably most
Speaker 1: familiar with the Eastern gray squirrel. Both Kentucky and North
Speaker 1: Carolina recognize the Eastern gray as their official state mammal.
Speaker 1: While all white and all black individuals aren't unheard of
Speaker 1: in the Eastern Gray, these squirrels tend to be grayford
Speaker 1: with light underbellies. Contrast this with the American red squirrel
Speaker 1: it's got a light underbelly as well, but we think
Speaker 1: you'll agree that the backside is more vibrant. Red brown
Speaker 1: to red gray fur covers the head, tail, and back,
Speaker 1: along with most of the available skin on all four legs.
Speaker 1: You might notice black stripes running down each flank. When present,
Speaker 1: these lines form a boundary between some of the darker
Speaker 1: hairs on top and lighter ones coating the belly. Like
Speaker 1: the Eastern gray, the American red squirrel has a ring
Speaker 1: of white fur around both eyes. Eastern gray squirrels grow
Speaker 1: to about fifteen to twenty inches that's forty long. American
Speaker 1: reds are about two thirds that size, measuring between eleven
Speaker 1: and fourteen inches that's twenty eight and thirty six centimes
Speaker 1: from twitching snout to bushy tail. But don't mistake the
Speaker 1: American red squirrel for timid little pushover. On the contrary,
Speaker 1: this is one aggressive rodent. Red squirrels are notorious for
Speaker 1: rating bird feeders. In the process, they won't hesitate to
Speaker 1: chase away Eastern grays, but despite their size disadvantage, the
Speaker 1: same species encounters can also get testy. By and large.
Speaker 1: Red squirrels live alone and just nine to eleven weeks old,
Speaker 1: they'll begin to stake out territories covering up to eight
Speaker 1: full acres that's just over three hectors. Not all territories
Speaker 1: are fully private. Red squirrels living in New York State
Speaker 1: have been known to share portions of their stomping grounds
Speaker 1: with their neighbors, and the mother squirrel in poor health
Speaker 1: might surrender some real estate to her offspring. Nevertheless, in
Speaker 1: the vast majority of cases, American red squirrels do not
Speaker 1: tolerate intruders, but like a lot of mammals, the squirrels
Speaker 1: use scents to help mark their territories. Uninvited guests are
Speaker 1: met with a hostile buzzing noise, and sometimes the owner
Speaker 1: of the turf will shake its tail and stamp its
Speaker 1: feet to make itself moretening. The squirrels are quite vocal
Speaker 1: around predators, too. Barks and other sounds act as alarm
Speaker 1: calls raised when they see a dangerous carnivore, and they
Speaker 1: have enemies to spare. Foxes, wolves, weasels, lynx, coyotes, crows,
Speaker 1: birds of prey, and timber Rattlesnakes all hunt this squirrel
Speaker 1: in the wild. Granted, red squirrels do their fair share
Speaker 1: of hunting as well. Young birds sometimes fall prey to
Speaker 1: the tree climbing rodents, as do unhatched bird eggs and insects.
Speaker 1: A red squirrels will devour baby snowshoe hares when the
Speaker 1: chance arises, but they're omnivores. Mushrooms are a favorite treats.
Speaker 1: Sometimes these require a bit of prep work. Red squirrels
Speaker 1: have been known to pluck mushrooms at ground level and
Speaker 1: then hang them out to dry on tree branches before
Speaker 1: chowing down sap. Tree bark, fruits and flowers also factor
Speaker 1: into the red squirrel's diet. However, seeds are their main
Speaker 1: source of food. The species typically lives in coniferous and
Speaker 1: deciduous forests. In such places, it's easy to find conifer
Speaker 1: cones loaded with rodent friendly seeds, so the red squirrels
Speaker 1: living there tend to keep lots of these cones in
Speaker 1: storage spots called middens. A midden can take the form
Speaker 1: of an underground hiding spot or a heap of cones
Speaker 1: lying beside a tree trunk. American red squirrels are both
Speaker 1: a blessing and a curse for the trees that sustain them.
Speaker 1: In the negative column, they can cause serious damage to
Speaker 1: trees by stripping their bark away. Over harvesting cones is
Speaker 1: another potential problem, and yet the squirrels are also really
Speaker 1: good at spreading those cones around. They don't always recover
Speaker 1: middens after building them up, which leaves the cone seeds
Speaker 1: to germinate and grow. Food Caches are a winter time
Speaker 1: necessity for many American red squirrels, as the species does
Speaker 1: not hibernate, but ironically, bountiful harvests can spell doom for
Speaker 1: newborn red squirrels. White spruce trees produce a greater than
Speaker 1: average number of cones in certain years, which botanists call
Speaker 1: mast heere. During a masked year, female red squirrels are
Speaker 1: more likely to have two litters of pups instead of
Speaker 1: just one, which gives male squirrels a horrifying opportunity. In
Speaker 1: the journal Ecology published a study documenting sexually selected infanticide
Speaker 1: in American red squirrels early one masked. Here, the authors
Speaker 1: observed several wild males slaughtering newborns fathered by their rivals.
Speaker 1: The tactic is intended to make mother squirrels reproductively available again,
Speaker 1: and it works after a female's first litter is killed,
Speaker 1: the murderous male can move in and sire his own
Speaker 1: pups with her funny how that never came up in
Speaker 1: the old Screwry squirrel cartoons. Today's episode is based on
Speaker 1: the article the American Red squirrel is small, territorial and
Speaker 1: aggressive on how stuffworks dot Com, written by Mark Bancini.
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Speaker 1: partnership with how stuff works dot Com and is produced
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