Eastern Gray Squirrel
(Sciurus carolinensis)

The Eastern Gray Squirrel has good eyesight, a keen sense of smell and incredible balance.
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They have a wide range of calls, but they communicate mainly with their tails, using them as a signaling device. The tail is used also for balance, shade and as a rudder when swimming.
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Eastern Gray Squirrels are crepuscular, most active in  the morning and evening when it is between daylight and dark.
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They are hunted as game in many areas of the country.  This animal does not hibernate in winter.
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The Eastern Gray Squirrel is a member of the Sciuridae family. They average body and head is 8-10" or 17- 20" including the tail. They normally have grayish-brown fur with a pale fur on their bellies, but some have a reddish tinge. They have a large bushy tail that often has silvery-tipped hairs at the end.
Sexual Dimorphism: None

 The gray squirrel builds itself a nest, or drey, consisting of twigs, lined with dry grass and bark. It is built fairly high in a tree. A summer drey is usually quite flimsy and lodged among small branches, while a winter drey is sturdier and built in a more protective area, such as a fork near the body of a tree. Sometimes the squirrel may make its nest in a hollow trunk. An average litter has 2-3 babies but as many as 8 or 9 may be born.

The Eastern Gray Squirrel does not hibernate. When food is scarce in the winter, it depends on caches of food buried, it buried in the autumn. Not all food that is buried is found, some nuts take root and begin a new tree. 

The most fearful predators of Eastern Gray Squirrels are hawks, owls, foxes, raccoons, and snakes.

The Eastern Gray Squirrel is a tree squirrel that is native to the eastern through the mid-west States and a few of the eastern provinces of Canada.

This animal does have a black phase, which means some of them are nearly all black; but these are rare.

These squirrels usually live anywhere there are mature deciduous trees, including forests, yards, gardens and city parks.

The Eastern Gray Squirrel is most active at dawn and dusk, searching for available food, such as hazelnuts, acorns, beech mast, tree bark and buds. In the autumn, they store nuts and other items by burying them in the ground. In the winter when their food supply is short, they search out these caches. They find them in winter by smell, rather than memory. They are also a frequents visitors to bird feeders for millet and sunflower seeds.

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