Squirrel observations

Jordan Wildish

I walked over to Bush park in hopes of finding a quiet, tranquil place to do some homework. I found a secluded bench and staked my claim. Thinking this would be the best place to concentrate on the tedious reading of Daisy Miller I opened up the book and started. I didn't make it through a single paragraph before I heard a noise in the bushes next to me, I peered into the dense foliage to see a squirrel staring back at me. I soon realized that squirrels were all around me, looking for acorns, hopping around tree trunks and of course, and watching me intently.

I tried to distinguish between the squirrels individually, but they were far too fast and similar looking for me to keep track of. It seems that there were three different kinds (or maybe 3 different ages?). The majority of the squirrels I saw were medium sized and reddish brown, they seemed to be the most aggressive or confident. They got closer to me than the other squirrels did and spent less time watching me. Then there were a few smaller squirrels that were mostly gray with a few reddish tints on their fur. It looked like may have been young reddish brown squirrels, although they mostly stayed separate from the rest. The last coloration I saw was a squirrel with modeled brown and blond body. It was significantly bigger than the rest and stayed under a bush for the entirety of my time on that bench.

The squirrels were engaged in all sorts of pastimes. The most common was hunting around the base of a oak tree for acorns. The oaks had about a 4 foot radius of leaf litter around the trunks that was apparently filled with acorns. Almost all the oaks I saw had a squirrel perusing the ground below for acorns. I could never see where exactly the squirrels took the acorns too because there were so many of them it was hard to follow just one. The squirrels seemed to be somewhat territorial because I never saw two squirrels happily searching around the same tree. If two somehow ended up at the same patch of leaf litter one would chase of the other away and reclaim the spot.

I saw a few squirrels engaged in what seemed like playing. One would chase another around a tree (or up it), this seemed much less aggressive than when a squirrel would chase another away from its territory. At one point I thought I saw the roles of chaser/chase-y get reversed mid way through the play. I believe I witnessed squirrel sharing.

Every single squirrel I saw constantly flicked its tail around, no matter what it was doing. Some flicked side to side, some flicked up and down, most flicked in not particular pattern. I tried to figure out what benefit this tail flicking could provide for the squirrels. I thought perhaps it was a way of communicating with the other squirrels or a way to distract predators. I couldn't tell that any particular tail flicks coincided with different actions or stimuli, but perhaps I wasn't looking close enough.

I watched one squirrel, a small reddish gray one, run around between the trees. I wasn't sure what it was doing, because it didn't seem to be holding a acorn, or playing with other squirrels, and I didn't see any predators that it was running from. Whatever it was doing must not have been crucially important, because somehow it noticed me noticing it and promptly stopped and turned around to face me. It stood up on it's hind legs and held it's tiny front paws up to its chest. The squirrel and I had an impromptu staring contest, which I miraculously won because a dog bark diverted the squirrel's attention. It turned back to me and then rubbed it's face with its paws, as if it was trying to keep its fur clean and presentable. Then it began to groom its tail with its paws and mouth. It cleaned itself slowly and carefully, not really what I would expect from a squirrel. At first I thought maybe it was scratching itself because it had fleas or some other pest, but it truly looked like it was simply cleaning itself. I never knew that squirrels could be hygienic.