Wildlife Spotlight: Fox Squirrel
|
Ralph Palmer
|
If your squirrel watching has been limited to the ubiquitous
gray squirrel, you’ll be surprised by the large size and color
variations of another Florida native, the fox squirrel. Fox squirrels
are much less common than gray squirrels, which makes a sighting a
special occasion. They also have a heftier body, a longer tail and fur
that ranges in color from tawny to gray to dark brown to completely
black. A white nose and ears give the fox squirrel’s face a mask-like
appearance.
Fox squirrels spend more time on the ground than gray squirrels and
are slower moving. They forage for acorns, nuts, fruits, insects,
mushrooms, buds and tubers, so they require habitats with an open
understory. These include open pine flatwoods, sandhills, mixed
pine-hardwood areas and rangeland interspersed with trees. Like the gray
squirrel, fox squirrels prefer to nest in hollows in trees, but will
also construct bulky nests of twigs and leaves in treetops. Young are
usually born in late winter/early spring and in the summer.
Fox squirrels are most common in the Panhandle and northern part of
the state. Of the three subspecies found in Florida, two are listed as
threatened or endangered. One of these, the Big Cypress fox squirrel,
occurs only in an area south of the Caloosahatchee River in southwest
Florida. The other, Sherman’s fox squirrel, is found from southeastern
Florida to Georgia and west to about the Choctawhatchee River.
