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In city and suburbs of Chicago, it's a squirrel's world
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A fox squirrel peers down at a passerby from the safety of its perch in a tree
We human beings like to think we own the homes and yards we inhabit, but it really is a squirrel's world out there.
Squirrels are numerous residents in almost every town and burb in the Chicago area and beyond.
The two most common squirrel species in the Chicago area are gray squirrels and fox squirrels.
The gray squirrel is the more aggressive of the two species, a lively and usually mischievous species prone to raiding bird feeders and digging up bulbs in the garden.
Fox squirrels (shown) can be persistently obtrusive as well, however. Both species like to make nests of leaves and sticks high up in suburban and city trees.
A third species of squirrel, the southern flying squirrel, is not seen that often around Chicago and vicinity. It prefers natural, open woodlands and is primarily nocturnal. They may be much more common than we think, but since most of us do not haunt the woods at night, we do not meet up with flying squirrels.
Of these three species, gray squirrels are definitely the most common species throughout northern Illinois. They are especially at home in the suburbs where the combination of trees, yards and bushes provide plenty of shelter and food. Gray squirrels vary in color from smoky gray tinged with black to warm gray with orange tinges. Recently small numbers of "black" squirrels has been turning up in some areas. This genetic aberration is quite common in Kent, Ohio, where a growing population of 'black" squirrels is a local tourist attraction. Recently I found a road kill black squirrel on Denker Road outside St. Charles. So who knows, perhaps we'll have our own population of jet black squirrels to promote.
Most gray squirrels sport a white ring around the eye and have a white chin and belly. You'll often see these features best when the squirrel is standing up holding an acorn or other nut to chew. Gray squirrels have strong feet with sharp nails that help them climb up and down trees. Watch a squirrel closely and you will notice almost always go "head first" up or down a tree. They are quite capable leapers and can even swim quite well when the need arises.
Gray squirrels are so creative at finding and getting food that entire lines of extravagant bird feeders have been invented to thwart their attempts to eat bird seed. They also climb down chimneys and have been known to turn up in fireplaces and inside houses. It is best to call an expert to have them removed. In Batavia, Illinois, resident John Cunningham found a gray squirrel crouching in the ashes of his fireplace. Despite the protestations of his wife, Cunningham elected to catch and release the squirrel himself. Donning a welding helmet and gloves, he reached behind the fire screen and grabbed the squirrel. The animal turned and bit through the welding glove, then escaped out the window Cunningham had opened just in case it started to run around the room. The squirrel's sharp teeth pierced his flesh. Cunningham was forced to visit the emergency room where technicians administered rabies shots.
Some gray squirrels seem to have a sense of humor that compliments their mischievous nature. While cleaning out the front seat of my car one spring afternoon, a trickle of water splashed on my neck. Thinking a passing driver had thrown a drink out the window, I stood up to look around and felt another shot of water on top of my head. Looking up I spied a gray squirrel clinging to a limb 10 feet up with its tail raised as it urinated. This time I jumped out of the way.
Observe squirrels long enough and you will surely find something to amuse you. Following Halloween one year we placed an uncarved pumpkin out by the bird feeder. A Fox squirrel chewed through the top and proceeded to hollow out the pumpkin carrying seeds to be buried around the yard. Fortunately none of these buried pumpkin seeds germinated or we'd have had a choke of vines to contend with at some point.
Fox squirrels are generally russet-tinged on body and tail with a warm yellow-ochre belly. Their tails are prodigiously furry not unlike the red fox for which they are named. Fox squirrels are larger than gray squirrels and often not quite as aggressive. In a yard where both fox squirrels and gray squirrels live, the smaller species will sometimes, but not always, be the dominant species.
Both species focus much of their yearly activity on breeding and rearing families. A mother fox squirrel recently lost its nest to a windstorm one late spring day. The mother squirrel climbed down to inspect the nest and found its four hairless babies still alive inside the broken tangle of sticks. She moved cautiously to the base of the pine tree and dug a hole in the ring of needles piled around the trunk. She then carried all four young to the hole, covered them up and began making trips from the fallen nest to a lower branch in the pine to rebuild. The entire process took 20 minutes and by the time she finished she had moved her four babies from the driveway to the safety of a new nest.
Breeding season can make squirrels, well, squirrelly. They will chase and tumble across the yard, but the female is not always a willing target of affection even after the mating antics. I watched one male fox squirrel pursue a female through our red maple for 20 minutes. Finally he gave up and flopped horizontally on the branch looking quite depressed at his failure to breed.
During college I was walking across campus in the company of young woman with whom I was particularly smitten. Just as I was commencing conversation in hopes of winning a date that evening, we were joined by another friend, a Vietnamese student with whom I worked in the cafeteria. His attentions were quickly transfixed on a pair of squirrels mating on a tree branch up ahead. "Look!" he exclaimed. "Just like dog!"
Fearing the young woman had been offended, I had no witty observation to complement my friend's quite true observation about the breeding habits of fox squirrels. "Uh yeah," I blundered. "But I actually haven't seen dogs doing it, so I couldn't say."
Pretty smooth, huh? At that moment even my growing knowledge of the natural world was of no help in the real game of life. Well, nuts.
I don't begrudge squirrels their randy natures. They must keep breeding to stay ahead of the large numbers of squirrels that succumb to fatal accidents on streets and highways. Road kill has a major impact on squirrel populations, as does predation by great horned owls and other avian and mammalian predators. To be a squirrel is to be ever on the alert. In some areas of the country, squirrels even show up on the dining tables of human beings. I've eaten squirrel. Tastes like chicken.
We all know squirrels can be a pest. My brother-in-law dealt with a gray squirrel that constantly chewed through the wires of his Christmas decoration. The squirrel carried segments of the line and bulbs up to its nest. It would get a shock when it bit through the cord, but that did not deter the squirrel.
That's how it is with squirrels. They seem to have an almost fatal attraction to potentially fatal behavior. Yet their family lives seem rich and active with parents often cavorting with young in all seasons, for they often breed twice a year. When it comes to life in the city and suburbs, it may be human beings who build houses and plant trees, but in the end it is a squirrel's world.
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