The red squirrel ( Sciurus vulgaris), also known as the Eurasian red squirrel, is a common tree squirrel species found throughout Europe and Asia. This article delves into the dietary habits of this fascinating creature, exploring its preferred foods, foraging strategies, and the role it plays in its ecosystem.
Introduction
While hiking on our local preserves, one might witness a squirrel perched on a tree stump, dining on a spruce cone. The diet of the red squirrel is diverse and varies based on the season and available resources. Primarily, red squirrels feed on the seeds and cones of evergreen trees. However, they are opportunistic eaters and will supplement their diet with mushrooms, bird eggs, berries, and fruits when available.
Core Dietary Components
The red squirrel's diet is heavily reliant on the seeds of trees. They are particularly fond of stripping conifer cones to obtain these seeds. Nuts, especially hazelnuts, chestnuts, and beech nuts, also constitute a significant portion of their food intake. In addition to seeds and nuts, red squirrels consume berries and young shoots.
Seasonal Variations
Summer is a bountiful time for squirrels. During this period, they actively stash food for the leaner winter months. Seeds and cones are stored in underground caches, ensuring a food supply when resources become scarce.
Mushroom Consumption
Many species of mushrooms are collected by squirrels, including those that are toxic to humans. Red squirrels have a unique gut that allows them to eat poisonous mushrooms. Their digestive system passes toxins straight through their body without ever entering the bloodstream. Mushrooms of all sizes are gathered; if a mushroom is too large to carry, the squirrel will break it into pieces for transport. While they eat all parts of the mushroom, they do leave behind the scraps of their seed and nut meals.
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Foraging Behavior
Red squirrels are usually most active during the morning or late afternoon, which coincides with their peak feeding times. In spring and summer, they rest in their nests around midday to escape the extreme heat. In winter, this midday rest is likely to be very short or missed entirely. Although these squirrels spend the majority of their time up in the trees, they come to the ground to search for food and to bury food items. Between 60% and 80% of its active period may be spent foraging and feeding. The red squirrel exhibits a crepuscular activity pattern. It often rests in its nest in the middle of the day, avoiding the heat and the high visibility to birds of prey that are dangers during these hours.
Food Storage and its Ecological Impact
Squirrels can eat their own body weight every week, so all of this preparation and storage is important for survival. Seeds and cones are stored in underground caches, ready to be dug up later. Sometimes they forget to dig up these seeds and unintentionally plant trees in new places.
Signs of Red Squirrel Activity
When visiting a local preserve, one can look up and see if you can find any loose mushrooms hanging in the tree branches or look down and see if you can find a midden pile filled with spruce cone scales. While they will eat all parts of the mushroom, they do leave behind the scraps of their seed and nut meals.
Habitat and Food Availability
Red squirrels occupy boreal, coniferous woods in northern Europe and Siberia, preferring Scots pine, Norway spruce, and Siberian pine. In western and southern Europe, they are found in broad-leaved woods where the mixture of tree and shrub species provides a better year-round source of food.
Physical Adaptations for Feeding
The Red squirrel lives in trees and its long tail helps the squirrel to balance and steer when jumping from tree to tree and running along branches. The Red squirrel has sharp curved claws to help it to climb and descend broad tree trunks, thin branches, and even house walls. Its strong hind legs let it leap gaps between trees.
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Threats to Red Squirrel Populations
Globally, there appear to be no major threats to Red squirrels at present. Locally, these squirrels may suffer from habitat loss and fragmentation, overhunting, pet trade, and competition with introduced species. In Britain and Italy, Red squirrels are partially displaced by introduced Eastern grey squirrels from North America. The eastern grey squirrel carries a disease, the squirrel parapoxvirus, that does not appear to affect their own health but will often kill the red squirrel.
Conservation Efforts
The red squirrel is protected in most of Europe, as it is listed in Appendix III of the Bern Convention; it is listed as being of least concern on the IUCN Red List. Although not thought to be under any threat worldwide, the red squirrel has nevertheless drastically reduced in number in the United Kingdom; especially after the eastern grey squirrel was introduced from North America in the 1870s. In January 1998, eradication of the non-native North American grey squirrel began on the North Wales island of Anglesey. This facilitated the natural recovery of the small remnant red squirrel population. It was followed by the successful reintroduction of the red squirrel into the pine stands of Newborough Forest. Mainland initiatives in southern Scotland and the north of England also rely upon grey squirrel control as the cornerstone of red squirrel conservation strategy.
Red Squirrels and Humans
The red squirrel used to be widely hunted for its pelt and is still used for modern furs. During the medieval period, squirrel pelts were used for cloak linings and for noble and royal mantles. This prompted its extensive use in heraldry as the vair fur, one of the primary tinctures.
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