Post by uff on Feb 21, 2010 13:12:06 GMT 1
Here's a bit of info about red squirrels that I've gathered over the past few years.
Red squirrels eat a variety of foods throughout the year. They are adapted to living and foraging in woodlands where their diets are made up of tree seeds, nuts berries,fungi,buds,shoots,flowers,bark,lichen and even insects in Summer. The Autumn and Winter seed harvest is extremely important, both for survival through the Winter months and to ensure breeding success the following Spring.
Chewed and stripped pine cones and broken nut shells ( often found scattered below a favourite feeding branch or a tree stump )are clues to show where a squirrel has been feeding. Squirrels can even tell good nuts from rotten ones by weighing them and shaking them in their paws. If the nut rattles, the kernel is likely to be small and shrivelled and not worth eating.
In the Autumn, squirrels can be seen gathering and storing caches of nuts and cones ready for the Winter. Squirrels do not hibernate but continue to forage for food throughout the Winter,although they may not emerge from their drey in very cold or wet weather.
During the breeding season ( which starts in January ) you may see squirrels leaping from tree to tree, then running round and round the tree trunks in mating chases. Female squirrels can have Spring and Summer litters, producing three young on average. However, the the breeding success is directly influenced by the previous Autumn's seed crop and the severity of the Winter. Young squirrels, known as kittens, open their eyes at about 30 days old and begin to venture from the drey at around 45 days. At 10 to 12 weeks they become independant from their Mother and start to disperse. The young squirrels survival is determined largely by their first Winter with up to 85% of young perishing during harsh conditions.
During the course of the 20th century the red squirrel had a particularly hard time with tree clearances during both world wars and outbreaks of two fatal diseases - Coccidiosis and Parapox virus - and of course the introduction of the grey squirrel, which was introduced in 1876.
The grey squirrel's efficiency in digesting large seeds from broadleaved trees ( such as acorns and hazel nuts ) , gives them a competitive advantage over red squirrels in broadleaved and mixed woodland. They are able to feed on these seeds before they are fully ripe and gain more nutritional benefit form them than red squirrels. This results in weight loss and reduced breeding success for the reds, with the consequence that in these types of woodland red squirrels are unlikely to remain within 15 years of greys appearing.
Futher, the outbreaks of Parapox virus that the greys carry, which is fatal to the reds, can cause the populations of reds to become locally extinct within a very short space of time.
All in all the future looks grim for these enchanting little animals.
Red squirrels eat a variety of foods throughout the year. They are adapted to living and foraging in woodlands where their diets are made up of tree seeds, nuts berries,fungi,buds,shoots,flowers,bark,lichen and even insects in Summer. The Autumn and Winter seed harvest is extremely important, both for survival through the Winter months and to ensure breeding success the following Spring.
Chewed and stripped pine cones and broken nut shells ( often found scattered below a favourite feeding branch or a tree stump )are clues to show where a squirrel has been feeding. Squirrels can even tell good nuts from rotten ones by weighing them and shaking them in their paws. If the nut rattles, the kernel is likely to be small and shrivelled and not worth eating.
In the Autumn, squirrels can be seen gathering and storing caches of nuts and cones ready for the Winter. Squirrels do not hibernate but continue to forage for food throughout the Winter,although they may not emerge from their drey in very cold or wet weather.
During the breeding season ( which starts in January ) you may see squirrels leaping from tree to tree, then running round and round the tree trunks in mating chases. Female squirrels can have Spring and Summer litters, producing three young on average. However, the the breeding success is directly influenced by the previous Autumn's seed crop and the severity of the Winter. Young squirrels, known as kittens, open their eyes at about 30 days old and begin to venture from the drey at around 45 days. At 10 to 12 weeks they become independant from their Mother and start to disperse. The young squirrels survival is determined largely by their first Winter with up to 85% of young perishing during harsh conditions.
During the course of the 20th century the red squirrel had a particularly hard time with tree clearances during both world wars and outbreaks of two fatal diseases - Coccidiosis and Parapox virus - and of course the introduction of the grey squirrel, which was introduced in 1876.
The grey squirrel's efficiency in digesting large seeds from broadleaved trees ( such as acorns and hazel nuts ) , gives them a competitive advantage over red squirrels in broadleaved and mixed woodland. They are able to feed on these seeds before they are fully ripe and gain more nutritional benefit form them than red squirrels. This results in weight loss and reduced breeding success for the reds, with the consequence that in these types of woodland red squirrels are unlikely to remain within 15 years of greys appearing.
Futher, the outbreaks of Parapox virus that the greys carry, which is fatal to the reds, can cause the populations of reds to become locally extinct within a very short space of time.
All in all the future looks grim for these enchanting little animals.