The Red Squirrel is basically a tree-dweller, ranging widely across Canada. In Calgary, they are mainly found in coniferous woods along our river valleys -- although a few can be found in residential areas that are well-treed with conifers. More readily heard than seen, they often scold trespassers, whether members of their own species or humans, passing by. They usually sit and chastise us from a horizontal branch 3-6 metres above ground, their bushy tail held upright against their back. Their reddish-brown fur readily distinguishes them from the larger Eastern Gray Squirrel introduced to Calgary in the late 1930s.
Unlike ground squirrels which hibernate, Red Squirrels are active throughout the entire year. During autumn, each is provident by cutting off and gathering many thousands of conifer tree cones, often while still green, which are stored in great mounds above, or sometimes below, ground, as a winter food supply. Also gathered are mushrooms and tree fruit (apples, etc.), which they dry by stashing in trees until dehydrated and ready for storage. Before winter sets in, they fill a tree cavity or an old magpie or other birds nest with shredded bark and other fine, soft, insulating material for their sleeping quarters. Some may use underground shelters, often amongst the massive midden heaps of the scales of the White Spruce or Douglas-firs cones that they have shucked off to get at the nutritious seeds. To get to their food source, they readily tunnel through the snow.
Red Squirrels mate in early spring, producing two to seven naked, blind helpless young some 35 to 38 days later. They normally mate again in late June with a second brood born by early August. The first brood is usually reared in a tree cavity. The second one is often raised in a drey (a leafy collection of green twigs, which provides a more air-conditioned site). The eyes of the young open by the time they are five weeks of age. They are weaned at seven to eight weeks and feed away from their birth-shelter at ten weeks, dispersing at about 18 weeks. They are sexually mature by the following spring. Few survive for more than two years, but the odd one may reach nine years in the wild and ten in captivity. A major predator is the Marten, a member of the Weasel Family. It seldom reaches Calgary. These agile, lightning-fast mammals pursue the Red Squirrels through the trees, at least in the foothills and northern Alberta forests. Coyotes, Red Fox and Lynx manage to catch a few. Others succumb to the hunting prowess of Northern Goshawk, Red-tailed Hawk and Great Horned Owls.
Red Squirrels range across North America, from Alaska to Labrador, and south in the western mountains to southern Arizona and New Mexico. They are absent from the treeless grassland region of Alberta and Saskatchewan and the interior Great Plains of the USA.
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Where to find Red Squirrels in Alberta
Red Squirrels are abundant throughout the Weaselhead/Glenmore Park area in all months of the year. Look for them wherever you find mature trees. Brent Johner
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SHAUNEEN O'BRIEN
for serving as the TALK ABOUT WILDLIFE Administrator this year