Squirrels

American Red Squirrel

Identifying birds is both art and science.  It takes hundreds of hours of both field time and book study, several thousand bird sightings, and a few thousand misidentifications.  Some people take up birding simply for the challenge of identification, others just to enjoy God's greatest creations. There is value in both approaches, learning the technical aspects of identification allows for studies of population shifts and climate change.  For instance, we can count the number of Eastern Jays that are now resident and can use that as an indication of what climate will be like in Colorado Springs in the next few years.  However, bird watchers who just go out to view birds notice nuances of behaviour and living conditions.  There identifications become based more on those aspects and they tend to specialise on only a few families or species.  We can learn a lot about birds from both camps.  I try to practice a little bit of both.  That being said, I have noticed that people don't give the same value to learning mammals, or plants, or insects.  There are a few people who learn to identify these things but many choose only birds.  This is a mistake.  Ecosystems are made up of more than just one group and to understand where you are, you should learn to find indicator species.  These other species will be more helpful to you in finding the ones you're actually looking for than you may think.  For instance, if you're looking for Stellar Jay and you're in a conifer forest but there are no ponderosa you are in the wrong place.  Or you should start looking for Gray Jay.  You also just sound silly when you can differentiate between all the sparrows but don't know that you're looking at a fox squirrel.  Squirrels are actually a big pet peeve and the area that I hear the most people making identification errors.  And so I present to you the guide you never asked for but always needed; The Guide to Colorado Springs Squirrels, Part 1: The arboreal squirrels.


Squirrels are rodents.  They form the family, Sciuridae, which means "shadow-tail" because squirrels sit in the shadow of their own tails.  From this family grouping come three types divided into only a few genus, there are arboreal, or tree, squirrels, ground squirrels, and chipmunks.  I will only be treating the tree squirrels today, so as to keep you from nodding off.

We have three major and one minor tree squirrel species, and by that I'm talking about population numbers as opposed to ecological importance.  The three major ones are Fox Squirrels, Red Squirrels, and Aberts squirrels, the lesser one is the White-tailed Antelope Squirrel.  Of these the most loved and misidentified is the Aberts, of which two sub-species may be seen.

Abert squirrel, notice ear tassles, also not my picture.

Aberts are large bodied with defined, angular faces and they must have tassled ears.  By that I mean that there are obvious extensions of hair that come to a point over each ear.  They are absolutely unmistakable.  Frequently confused with the melanistic fox squirrel, which is black and has no ear tassles, they are only found in conifer forests with a strong preference for ponderosa forests.  They are very rare even in these forests.  So rare that after three weeks of searching and one sighting I must use a wiki-commons picture until I can get my own.  Our two sub-species are differentiated by elevation and colour.  The black S.a. ferreus is found predominately in the foothills of the Rampart Range and only in ponderosa pine forests.  If the squirrel you are observing is black, has no tassles, and is not in a ponderosa pine forest you are not looking at an Aberts.  They other one, S.a. hudsonicus is rarely seen in high elevation Canadian Zone forests of lodge-pole pine and spruce with a few firs thrown in to confuse people.  They are silvery grey with a white belly.  All Aberts will try to escape detection, refusing to even alarm call unless they absolutely must.

fox squirrel, in fox colour morph

The fox squirrel is the squirrel most commonly seen.  They are very large squirrels with broad, less defined faces.  They have two important colour morphs in this area, though they have plenty more.  The first one is called fox and the second is melanisitic.  Fox is a blend of rufous orange, grey and white while melanisitic is solidly black.  Their hair looks very coarse as well.  These squirrels prefer cities, towns, and mixed forests.  Very few fox squirrels survive for a year, about 22%; the leading cause is starvation.  These squirrels are tolerant of humans and very brave.  I had several in my house this summer.  These squirrels do not make alarm calls in more human populated areas but they will do so readily in more wild places.

Melanistic (black) fox squirrel

The third squirrel is the American Red Squirrel.  Ours are not red at all, so be careful in assessing any non-red squirrel as a fox squirrel.  These squirrels are small, silvery grey with a white belly and thick, soft looking fur.  There features are broad like the fox squirrel but there small size and brighter hair is a dead give away.  Every sub species of the red squirrel species has a white eye ring.  They are never found in cities.  They prefer mixed conifer forests with a water supply.  I have seen these little guys racing through the canopy in Divide and Bear Creek Nature Area.  They are not as brave as fox squirrels but more brave than Aberts.  They do send out alarm calls at the drop of a hat.

Not so red American Red Squirrel, note the white eye ring

And there you have it.  How to tell the three most common squirrels apart; however, you don't need a guide to appreciate nature.