Wildlife Rehabilitation & Education » Gray Squirrel

Letter from the Director – Fall 2008

cyndi — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:20:02 +0000

Thank you!

Sharon Schmalz, Executive Director

The devastation that Ike wreaked is difficult to comprehend. Many animals and birds were displaced and injured, but because Ike struck at the beginning of the squirrel’s second litter of the year, that population has been hit the hardest. Hurricane Ike brought us over 1500 squirrels! During the three week period post-Ike, several hundred other wild animals were also brought to us for care.

WR&E wants to send a huge THANK YOU to the Houston SPCA, NWRA members, IWRC members and the hundreds of individuals and organizations who have contacted us with encouraging words, offers of supplies, financial donations and hands to feed babies. Knowing that people from every walk of life, from one coast to the other, were sending their hope and concern buoyed us.

WR&E is uniquely positioned to respond to disasters such as Ike. We are no stranger to disaster, our oiled wildlife response team responds to oil and chemical spills along the entire Gulf Coast and our affiliation with the Houston SPCA has provided even more expertise and response capability.

WR&E prepared written procedures and contingency plans, placed rescue and response supplies in containers that could be airlifted in response to a wildlife disaster and trained our personnel and volunteers. Then we waited and prayed we were ready.

I’ve been impressed and touched by the people who love wildlife and those that care for the orphaned and injured. Hundreds of caring people left their damaged homes, used precious gasoline and drove to the Wildlife Center to bring the orphaned and injured to us for help.

Volunteers donated thousands of hours of time, individual wildlife rehabbers accepted the smallest and those ready for an outdoor cage and our network of rehab organizations rallied to transfer some of the load. What a wonderful group of people you are!

Our affiliation with the Houston SPCA was key to the overwhelming success of WR&E’s response to Hurricane Ike. A centralized permanent facility gave the public a single point of contact for the orphaned and injured or to donate the gift of time, money or supplies. The HSPCA opened their arms and their generator powered facility to us after we lost power and shared volunteers and veterinary professionals.

I send my deepest gratitude on the behalf of native Texas wildlife to each and every one that pulled together during this devastating crisis to save so many lives. Thank you.

Hurricane Ike Squirrels

cyndi — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:47:43 +0000

WR&E Rises to the Challenge – with a little help from our friends!

The Wildlife Center was spic and span for our Annual Open House when all eyes shifted to the Gulf and Hurricane Ike. Any Gulf Coast hurricane makes rehabilitators anxious, but Ike seemed determined to follow in Rita’s footsteps. Executive Director, Sharon Schmalz evacuated to the Wildlife Center Friday (9/12) and with the help of some volunteers prepared the center and its animals for the storm.

Saturday morning, Sharon reported minor damage and began shifting animals around by flashlight. By noon, people began showing up with baby squirrels. Without power, it was difficult to care for the wildlife already in residence, much less the injured and orphaned by Ike. We are affiliated with the Houston SPCA and they invited us next door where a huge generator was providing power.

That afternoon we received 100+ babies. All four HSPCA veterinarians and vet techs helped triage, administer fluids and feed. Sunday, additional rehabilitators and volunteers were able to make it to the Wildlife Center to help with another 100+ squirrels. Monday brought another 300+ squirrels.

Power was restored Tuesday afternoon and WR&E’s volunteers poured in to help. HSPCA volunteers not needed for companion animal care were quickly trained and supervised. We began accepting volunteers from the general public and wound up training 160 emergency wildlife caretakers.

Wednesday passed in a blur with over 100 more squirrels. Sixteen hour days, worrying about how to find gas to commute from a house that probably didn’t have power began to wear. We were able to keep up at that point but started worrying about the next several days. Our phones finally started working on Thursday and we were back on the radar. Well, sort of………we now had over 600 squirrels AND the phone was constantly ringing.

By the end of the week we had outsourced many of the littlest guys to our permitted rehabilitators who had power. Rebecca McKeever with Lone Star Wildlife Rescue answered our plea for help. Thank you, thank you, thank you! She contacted Wildlife Rescue in Austin, Texas and between them; they took over 250 into care.

We felt much better but then received 150 the next day, about 140 the next day and 100 the day after. We sent 50 to Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation in Kendalia, Texas. The McKinney SPCA and rehabilitator Lee Watts coordinated moving 189 to Dallas rehabilitators. Lee spoke with TPWD to get authorization to move 144 to Wild Care Foundation in Oklahoma. Sheila Herrington from San Antonio, Texas drove to Houston to assist with the overwhelming number of squirrels.

The Texas General Land Office Oiled Wildlife Response Trailer was brought to the Wildlife Center in anticipation of oiled wildlife from Galveston and Seabrook areas. We were prepared for catastrophic damage to upper Gulf Coast chemical plants and refineries. Thanks to proper hurricane preparations, far fewer wildlife than anticipated were contaminated. Five oiled Brown Pelicans were cleaned and washed as well as an Osprey and an Opossum.

We were very fortunate to have a team of 5 personnel from the Animal Humane Society, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They had responded to help the Houston SPCA with companion animals but were assigned to help us with wildlife. We could not have done such a great job with the injured and sick babies if they were not there to help.

WR&E could not have mounted such a huge rehabilitation effort without “a little help from our friends”. It would have been impossible to coordinate incoming animals and supplies with individual rehabilitators without a centralized location. Without the Wildlife Center’s state of the art hospital and rehabilitation facility, veterinarians, vet techs, rescue personnel, volunteers and the general public could not have brought immediate care and comfort to so many displaced animals.

Black Morph of Fox Squirrel

Thank you to every person that cared enough to bring the injured and orphaned to us for help. Many of you gave your time as emergency volunteers to help care for these animals. We are grateful to those that donated money, Esbilac and other supplies. Our gratitude goes to the volunteers of WR&E and the HSPCA who gave their time and resources when they didn’t know when the next tank of gas would be available, when their home would have power or when they’d get a needed “blue roof”. We are grateful to numerous individuals, companies and organizations that came to our aid when needed. We couldn’t have saved so many lives without your support.

Girl Scouts Prepare Rice Bags & Blankets for Ike Squirrels. They also brought squirrels houses and other needed supplies

Our most sincere thanks go to the individuals and organizations that drove long hours to Houston in order to take some of our squirrels when we wondered if there would ever be light at the end of the tunnel. Some of the squirrels went to areas that do not have gray squirrel populations, and those individuals committed to bring them back to us for release. Wildlife rehabilitators are a great group of people and we are honored to be associated with you.

Why So Many Squirrels?

Love them or hate them, squirrels were by far the wildlife species hardest hit by Ike. WR&E began receiving orphaned squirrels within hours of Ike’s passing. In all, WR&E received over fifteen hundred (yes, that’s 1500) orphaned and injured squirrels during the 3 weeks following Hurricane Ike!

of the squirrels received after Hurricane Ike were eastern gray, but why hundreds and hundreds of squirrels and only a couple of hundred other animals and birds? In a word….timing. Squirrels usually have two litters a year, one in spring and one in the fall.

They are the first mammal the Wildlife Center sees in large numbers each spring and the last in the fall. Research for the species article found that in less temperate climates, the eastern fox and eastern gray squirrels tend to stagger their litters by as much as a month. As Ike threatened, the fox squirrel babies tended to be older, the grays for the most part still had closed eyes. Ike’s one silver lining is that he arrived late enough that most of the babies were past the very vulnerable “pinkie” stage.

Squirrels, Squirrels Everywhere Squirrels

cyndi — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:51:37 +0000

By Cyndi Bohannon

Squirrelly –adjective; eccentric, cunningly unforthcoming, reticent, odd, crazy, unpredictable, jumpy, restless or nervous…….a pretty unflattering description all things considered. However, the adjective actually describes behaviors that with respect to evolution are extremely advanced.

The squirrel’s bizarre zigzag / double back flight from danger seems random and indecisive, but is brilliant in light of millions of years of evolution against “death from the sky”. Once a raptor has committed to a strike, there is very little that can be done to change direction, successfully dodging this threat yielded more zigzagging squirrels. Unfortunately, this strategy actually makes them more vulnerable to cars, dogs or cats.

Evolution gave squirrels large eyes that are high on the skull to provide an extremely large field of view; just what a tasty morsel needs to evade being someone’s dinner. Unfortunately, this eye placement severely limits frontal vision and depth perception. To compensate, squirrels constantly scan for threats and perform complex “bob and weave” behaviors to triangulate distance.

People sweat, dogs pant and squirrels get wet feet. Locating sweat glands on their feet, between the foot pads and on their paws between the toes seems an odd manner to regulate temperature, but in combination with scent glands, it allows the squirrel to constantly lay down a scent trail, thereby claiming all they touch. Squirrels also appear to lovingly rub nuts on their face before caching. What appears as a cute behavior actually allows scent glands on the cheeks stamp the nut as “mine!”.

A large proportion of the brain is dedicated to spatial memory. Contrary to folklore, squirrels really do remember most of their cache locations (and I can’t even find my keys!) This spatial memory also comes in handy to move without pausing through the canopy.

Blessed, or perhaps cursed with a high metabolism, squirrels preferentially select nuts and seeds that are high in protein and fat. Squirrels can’t digest cellulose, so they can’t graze like rabbits or deer. Early spring is the hardest time of year because stored nuts have been eaten, rotted or sprouting, but new sources are not yet available. While they appear to be vegetarian, squirrels adore a nice crunchy June bug or cricket. Prone to metabolic bone disease, squirrels are drawn to sources of calcium. Small prey, chewing on bones or shed antlers provide this necessary mineral.

Since squirrels do not form packs for cooperative hunting, it is surprising they have evolved extremely sophisticated means of communication. Body language is a large component (especially tail flagging) of this communication, but squirrels also have a huge range of vocalizations, many of which are mistaken as birds or insects.

Many (including myself) mistakenly call the fox squirrel a “red” squirrel. American Red Squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) exist in mostly in the northern third of the United States and Canada and are much smaller than either the fox or eastern gray squirrels, but bigger than a chipmunk. Soooo, if you’ve always called fox squirrels, “red” – just mentally substitute as you read along.

Rarely are squirrels observed swimming, but swim they do and quite well at that! A startled rehabilitator discovered just how well they swim when a recently released Ike survivor crossed paths with the big yellow dog that was “guarding” the pool. Panicked the squirrel would drown (or the dog would jump in after it) she grabbed a cleaning net only to watch it swim across the pool, jump out and scoot through the fence! Many swimming pools inadvertently become death traps. To prevent a tragedy, simply leave a temporary ramp that will allow the animal to easily climb out.

The large leaf-lined nest that squirrels build is called a drey. Litters are born in the spring and fall and vary in size from one to six, but are usually three or four. Gestation is about 44 days and the young are born almost embryonic in appearance, pink and hairless with closed eyes and ears. Ears open after a couple of weeks, eyes two to three weeks later. By the time eyes are completely open and focusing well at six to seven weeks, the baby is already two-thirds the size of mom and will start moving around the limbs near the drey. Mom will take her babies to forage about the time she starts to wean at ten to twelve weeks of age.

Hypothermia can kill babies that fall from their drey, even in the heat of summer. Unless the baby is warm to the touch, it needs a source of heat. A drink bottle filled with hot water or a rice filled sock which is heated in the microwave can provide warmth for an hour. Place the baby in a small box that is placed near the tree for the mother to retrieve. Give mom an hour or two. Do not try to feed or give fluids to the baby. After Hurricane Ike many squirrels were cared for by well meaning people that caused potentially fatal inhalation pneumonia.

The Texas Gulf Coast supports three sub-species of squirrel; Eastern Gray (Sciurus carolinensis), Eastern Fox (Sciurus niger) and Southern Flying Squirrels (Glaucomys volans). All three belong to the Order Rodentia (defining characteristic – upper and lower incisors constantly grow and must be kept short by gnawing), Family Scuiuridae (which in Greek means “shade tail”) along with marmots, chipmunks and prairie dogs.

Both the eastern gray and eastern fox squirrel are diurnal, peak activity is early morning and just before sunset. Southern flying squirrels are nocturnal and are rarely seen before deep nightfall. They often go undetected because they are small, quiet and secretive.

Even if you never see them, proof that flying squirrels are nearby can be found in their unique method of eating whole nuts. Flying squirrels gnaw a small circular hole at the pointed end of the nut and scoop out as much as they can before moving to the next. Regular squirrels smash whole pecans and acorns, leaving shards everywhere.

Naming squirrels by their coat colors can often be misleading since both the gray and fox can vary from an almost white blond to coal black. Colonies of black squirrels exist in the northeast, mid-west, down the Appalachian Mountains and across the upper gulf coast. New Mexico and California also boast of colonies. The Heights in Houston even have a colony! Scientists have found that black squirrels arise from a single mutation and the mutation is dominant. Squirrels that homozygous (received a mutated gene from both parents) are a deep glossy black, while the heterozygous (received one mutated gene and one normal gene) show other colors (brown, red or silver) evenly distributed in the coat.

The eastern fox squirrel is on average thirty to fifty percent larger than the eastern gray, but without the other to compare to, size is relative. Weight is highly proportional to diet, but, eastern fox squirrels are usually a really heavy two pounds, pushing three; while the eastern grays are usually over one pound, but rarely over two. Their coat color is similar, but the tail and belly are strikingly different. The tail of a gray will be twitching and flashing so much it may be hard to appreciate the beautiful bright silver that tips each hair, the fox will probably be munching on something with its tail calmly curled against its back so it will be easily seen that each hair is tipped in rich reddish brown. The belly of the eastern gray ranges from bright white to a warm creamy white; while the fox has a belly that ranges from a warm light tan to almost orange.

The biggest difference between the two sub-species may be temperament. The fox is more laid-back and timid while the eastern gray is energetic and bold. The eastern gray is much more sociable and can often be seen chasing each other up and down a tree, across the canopy and down another tree. The extreme acrobatics of the gray squirrel can be breathtaking. They will chide intruders from a safe distance, cussing a blue streak and flipping their tail so fast it’s a wonder that it doesn’t fall off. When threatened, they will bolt up the nearest tree to chide or race through the canopy.

The fox squirrel tends to be more of a loner, they don’t seem to mind other squirrels nearby, but they aren’t going to waste energy with aerial acrobats unless it is breeding season. They tend to freeze and hunker down in the face of an intruder. When threatened, they will run up the nearest tree and again freeze to prevent detection. Fox squirrels are much more likely to be heard making soft, happy grunting/snuffling sounds as they forage.

Fox and gray squirrels appear to peacefully coexist – more or less. They rarely interbreed and when it happens the offspring seem physically inferior. Territories that are not in transition tend to be all fox or all gray. Where both are seen, it is usually the smaller gray that is moving into the fox’s territory. There is no obvious battle for territory; however, the bolder gray almost always eventually squeezes out the less aggressive fox.