Squirrels are known from the end of the Eocene in Wyoming and the early Oligocene in southern France.
Squirrels have distinct vocalizations for particular situations, such as infants calling to their mothers and adults vocalizing during aggression. Males vocalize during the mating season to attract mates. Many squirrel species use distinctive alarm calls to warn conspecifics of dangers, including alarm calls that warn of specific threats, distinguishing between aerial and terrestrial predators. Squirrels also use posture and movement as a form of communication, with messages carried by tail position, stomping of the feet, or body posture. As in most mammals, olfaction is very important in communication. Females indicate sexual receptiveness through pheromones and social position or relatedness may also be inferred through chemical cues.
Communication Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
Other Communication Modes: pheromones ; scent marks
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
Of the 279 species of Sciuridae, two are listed as critically endangered while another 15 are listed as endangered and 16 are listed as vulnerable. The most endangered sciurid is the Vancouver Marmot (Marmota vancouverensis), consisting of only an estimated 35 individuals in the wild as of 2004. Common factors leading to these marmots being listed as endangered include destruction of habitat and human encroachment. Lack of accurate information on populations and threats is another important factor in sciurid conservation generally.
Squirrels are a diverse group consisting of approximately 279 species and 51 genera that are broken into five subfamilies (Ratufinae, Sciurillinae, Sciurinae, Xerinae, and Callosciurinae). The family Sciuridae includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, and flying squirrels. Tree squirrels have long, bushy tails, sharp claws and large ears. Some have well-developed ear tufts. Flying squirrels have a furred membrane (patagium) extending between the wrist and ankle that allows them to glide between trees. Ground squirrels are generally more robust than tree squirrels and often have short, sturdy forelimbs that are used for digging. Their tails, while fully furred, generally are not as bushy as those of tree squirrels.
Sciurids range in body size from mouse-sized African pygmy squirrels to robust red giant flying squirrels of Asia, weighing up to 3 kilograms. They vary greatly in geographic range and habitat. Squirrels are native throughout the world, with the exception of Antarctica, Australia, southern South America, and some desert regions. They occupy habitats ranging from tundra to rainforest. Some squirrels live solitary lives such as woodchucks, while others, such as prairie dogs, live in communities of hundreds of individuals with complex social structures. Squirrels are largely herbivorous, eating seeds, nuts, fruits, fungi, and other plant matter; however, insects, eggs and the occasional small vertebrate may be part of the diverse diet of these animals.
The majority of problems sciurids cause humans are a result of their voracious appetites. These animals dig up seeds planted by farmers as well as devouring crops. Many ground and tree squirrels commonly participate in “bark stripping” where they pull the bark off of trees to get to the tissue underneath. This may stunt the growth of the tree, cause a reduction in fruit production, or cause the tree to die. Ranchers see prairie dogs as a threat, although those threats are generally not substantiated. Squirrels can be seen as a nuisance to homeowners as well. They may chew through electrical and telephone wiring, insulation, and house siding. Squirrels sometimes climb into and cache food in transformers and generators, causing power outages in surrounding communities. Squirrels may carry diseases, such as plague, which can be transmitted to humans and domestic animals. In western North America, rock squirrels and prairie dog species are the most common and frequent source of transmission to humans.
Negative Impacts: injures humans (carries human disease); crop pest; causes or carries domestic animal disease ; household pest
Squirrels are hunted for their meat and pelts. Squirrel pelts were also once used as a form of currency. The modern word for money in Finland actually comes from a root word that means squirrel skins. Since their diets consist of mainly fruits and seeds, squirrels become very useful in seed dispersal. Squirrels that eat flowers or drink nectar may also aid in pollination. Squirrels are used in medical and scientific research. A research project at the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks has been studying hibernation in arctic ground squirrels to learn more about strokes, heart attacks, and neurodegenerative diseases in humans caused by reduced blood flow. Groundhogs suffer from a virus very similar to Hepatitis B in humans and exhibit similar disease progression such as cancer of the liver and liver disease. For this reason, these animals are used as models for studying the disease, treatments, and advances in liver transplant techniques (summarized in Thorington and Ferrell, 2006).
Positive Impacts: food ; body parts are source of valuable material; research and education; pollinates crops
Squirrels are important sources of prey for a vast array of predators including predators that are threatened or endangered. For rare species such as snow leopards and northern spotted owls, squirrels are an essential part of the diet. Black-footed ferrets eat almost exclusively prairie dogs. Tree and flying squirrels are also essential in the regeneration of forests around the world through their seed dispersal activities. This is not only because seeds are left in the feces of these animals but also because of the caching habits of many squirrels. Squirrels are also important in dispersing the spores of fungi that they eat, including ecologically important underground endorhyzal fungi. Squirrels serve as host to a number of parasites such as fleas, mites and ticks. These parasites are known for causing the transfer of a number of diseases, such as plague, from squirrel to squirrel and to other mammals, including humans. Some species have also been identified as playing the role of a keystone species in their ecosystem. One study conducted by Kotiliar et al. (1999) confirmed that prairie dogs acted as a keystone species in the Great Plains of the United states. Not only were prairie dogs an important food source for predators such as golden eagles and swift foxes, but their burrows were very important for a number of animals as well. Abandoned burrows were used as housing for animals ranging from raccoons and cottontail rabbits to shrews and voles. Others were found to feed on the vegetation that had been disturbed by the construction of prairie dog colonies. The digging of these burrows were also found to be beneficial for a number of plants because of the aeration of soil and fertilizing properties in their feces.
Ecosystem Impact: disperses seeds; pollinates; soil aeration ; keystone species
Commensal/Parasitic Species:
Most squirrels eat mainly tree seeds and fruit, but their diet is diverse, including insects, eggs, fungi, lichens, and small vertebrates. While some squirrels consume fungi as a secondary component of their diet, it makes up nearly half of the diet of other species. Many species opportunistically take animal prey, such as the young and eggs of birds or other mammals. Foods such as buds, shoots, flowers, bark, lichens, and green plant material have generally low energy content per unit weight and make up a smaller portion of the diet. But the amount of each type of food consumed is determined mainly by its availability and accessibility. For this reason, diet composition changes from region to region, season to season, and year to year. Many squirrel species cache or hoard food as well.
Foraging Behavior: stores or caches food
Primary Diet: carnivore (Eats terrestrial vertebrates, Eats eggs, Insectivore ); herbivore (Frugivore , Granivore ); omnivore ; mycophage
Squirrels are found worldwide, native to all terrestrial regions with the exception of Australia, Madagascar, southern South America, Antarctica, Greenland, many oceanic islands, and certain desert regions such as the Sahara. Two species of squirrels were introduced to Australia in the 19th century. One of those species, Sciurus carolinensis, is now believed to be extinct. However, a flourishing feral colony of Funambulus pennantii persists there. Squirrels are especially diverse in African and southeast Asian forests.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native ); palearctic (Native ); oriental (Native ); ethiopian (Native ); neotropical (Native ); australian (Introduced )
Other Geographic Terms: holarctic
From trees to burrows underground, sciurids are found in a vast array of habitats, including rainforests, arid grasslands, arctic tundras, forests, suburban areas, and cities. Sciurids can be found at high elevations, such as the Himalayan marmots (Marmota himalaya), which are found at elevations up to 5000 meters.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; tropical ; polar ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: tundra ; taiga ; desert or dune ; savanna or grassland ; chaparral ; forest ; rainforest ; scrub forest ; mountains
Other Habitat Features: urban ; suburban ; agricultural ; riparian
Squirrels have been found to live a maximum of 8 to 14 years in the wild and up to 16 or more years in captivity. However, many squirrels do not live past their first year of life in the wild.
Squirrels are characterized by their long bodies, soft fine hair (although some have very thick hair), and large eyes. The hindfeet have five digits while their forefeet have four digits. Claws are found on all terminal phalanges except the thumb, which has a nail. Vibrissae, which are important for tactical stimuli, are found all over the body by the nose, cheek, eye, chin, wrist, feet, and outside of the legs. Sciurids vary in size from very small, like African pygmy squirrels (Myosciurus pumilio, approximately 10 g), to substantially large, such as Alpine marmots (Marmota marmota, 3 to 8 kg). They also vary substantially in fur color including black, white, red, and brown. Sciurids have three basic morphologies: ground squirrel, tree squirrel, and flying squirrel forms. Ground squirrels tend to have large broad forefeet, with the middle digit being the longest, short, stout limbs used for digging, and short tails. Tree squirrels have long muscular legs, long arms, large ears, and long bushy tails. Flying squirrels are characterized by their gliding membrane, a furred patagium which attaches to the forelimbs via the styliform cartilage at the wrist and extends down to the heel of the hindlimbs. Additionally, flying squirrels have the longest limbs relative to body size of all squirrels.
What links all squirrels is their skull architecture and relatively primitive jaw structure. Their skulls are short, with a short rostrum and arched profile. The skull has an broad, tilted zygomatic plate that serves as the attachment point for the lateral branch of the masseter muscle. The superficial branch of masseter muscle originates on a prominent bump of bone of the side of rostrum called the masseteric tubercle. They have small infraorbital foramena that is not enlarged to transmit muscle as it is in myomorphous (mice and rats) and hystricomorphous (cavys and guinea pigs) rodents. Squirrels have long jugals, well-developed postorbital processes, and large bullae that are not inflated. The anterior ends of the jugals contact the frontals and the palate is broad and relatively short, ending at the same level as the molar row. The zygomasseteric architecture of skulls is sciuromorphous (the lateral branch of the masseter muscle has shifted to the rostrum).
The teeth of sciurids is characterized by four chisel-like incisors covered in enamel that grow continuously and have roots that extend well back into the maxilla and mandible. Since they are used for gnawing, these teeth are kept short and sharp. The incisors are followed by a diastema and cheek teeth which are rooted and brachydont or hypsodont. The dental formula of sciurids is 1/1, 0/0, 1-2/1, 3/3 = 20-22.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; heterothermic ; homoiothermic; bilateral symmetry ; polymorphic
Sexual Dimorphism: sexes alike; female larger; male larger
Sciurids are a typical meal for many opportunistic domestic and wild predators. The most common predators may be birds of prey, such as eagles and hawks, falcons, owls, and cats, canids, and weasels. But many predators have been observed eating squirrels, including large snakes, bigmouth bass, and chimpanzees . Squirrels are also hunted for food and fur by humans.
The most common tactics of sciurids for avoiding predators is camouflage and escape. Squirrels typically have coats with color that matches their surroundings. Tree squirrels often have lighter coloration on the ventral side compared to the dorsal, allowing them to blend in with the light sky to a predator that is looking at the squirrel from below and at to blend in with the dark ground when being stalked by an aerial predator. Squirrels also avoid capture by quickly darting away from predators, remaining vigilant, biting, clawing, hiding in burrows or nests and sounding alarm calls. Squirrels that are commonly attacked by snakes take on a completely different defense tactic known as mobbing. Especially common in communal prairie dogs (Cynomys), these squirrels will attack snakes, pouncing, biting and scratching until the snake leaves the area near the burrow or is killed.
Known Predators:
Anti-predator Adaptations: cryptic
Sciurid mating systems are polygynandrous; multiple males may mate with multiple females in a single breeding season. Generally, females are widely dispersed and males do not defend a territory, but this behavior varies. Some species of ground squirrels live in groups, forcing males to defend a small territory to attract females. In North America, many sciurids have two peak times of reproduction each year: one from December to January and the other from May to June. The sciurid breeding season is marked by the development of male testes and sexual swelling of the females, as is common in many mammals. Males may follow the scent left by estrous females or they may simply chase females. Groups of males, ranging from 4 to 9 individuals, chase a female from branch to branch at top speeds in what is known as a “mating chase.” Typically, one dominant male stands out from the rest. His dominance is determined by his ability to keep close proximity both during and between mating chases. After the female accepts a particular male, copulation ensues, and the mating chase continues, allowing for multiple copulations for both males and females. Ground squirrels, however, have a different mating system because they hibernate through the winter. Females go into estrous soon after hibernation, marking the beginning of breeding season. Female receptivity varies between species. Shorter estrous allows a single male to mate a single female, while longer estrous allows a single female to mate with multiple males. Ground squirrel mating rituals take place underground or in the nest, therefore much of this behavior is unknown.
Mating System: polygynandrous (promiscuous)
Gestation ranges from 29 to 65 days, depending on the size of the species, with smaller squirrels having shorter gestation periods. For squirrels that hibernate, mothers must wean their young in enough time to gain winter weight for hibernation. All sciurids give birth to their young in a nest. Although a single male can fertilize an entire litter, usually a litter has varying paternity, so a single litter could have multiple fathers. A typical litter consists of four offspring that are born naked, with closed eyes and ears. Development and sexual maturity varies from species to species, with some squirrels being able to leave the nest after 26 days, and reaching sexual maturity by 87 days, to squirrels that are fully developed after 42 days, but don’t reach sexual maturity until they are 3 years old. Hibernating squirrels tend to develop more quickly, with lactation times averaging 38 days. In tree and flying squirrels, lactation averages 70 days, longer than most other squirrel groups. African tree squirrels tend to be born at larger birth weights and have relatively shorter times to independence.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; viviparous
All squirrels are altricial at birth. Parental investment involves the female providing food and care for the young. In species in which females aggregate, they may bequeath natal territory to juveniles, which increases survivorship. In some African sciurids, females share in the care of their young.
Parental Investment: altricial ; female parental care ; pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); pre-independence (Provisioning: Female); inherits maternal/paternal territory
