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Hunting Fox Squirrel Page
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Fox Squirrel
Sciurus niger
Habitat: Open deciduous forest, lowland shelterbelts and urban areas, riparian woodlands.
Diet: The diet has been well studied in the eastern United States (Nixon et al. 1968, Korschgen 1981). Fox squirrels eat a variety of foods including nuts such as acorns and walnuts, twigs, buds, and tender leaves of many tree species including cottonwood and elm, various berries, apples, Russian-olives, and other fleshy fruits, small grains, and corn (Yeager 1959). Fox squirrels also readily take food placed out for songbirds and feed on eggs of birds, nestlings, and other animal protein. Bones and antlers are also consumed, especially by pregnant and lactating females.
Description: The fox squirrel is a large tree squirrel, gray brown above, shading to reddish brown laterally. The belly is rufous, yellowish brown, or whitish. The tail is bushy, grayish red dorsally and red below. Measurements are: total length 450-600 mm; length of tail 170-300 mm; length of hindfoot 50-75 mm; length of ear 19- 33 mm; weight 400-1,100 g.
Range in Colorado: Fox squirrels are common in riparian woodlands along the South Platte and Republican rivers. They have extended their range along most tributaries of these rivers and are penetrating the foothills along riparian corridors as high as Evergreen (2,285 m [7,500 ft]) for example. Many populations are the result of deliberate introductions made in the early 1900s and more recently, but a natural invasion has also occurred as plains riparian habitats have been stabilized by control of floods and prairie fires, and as humans have created more favorable environments for fox squirrels by planting deciduous trees (Armstrong 1972, R. Hoover and Yeager 1953).
Status: CDOW Small Game Mammal
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