Walking through the woods today it was hard to ignore the activities of Eastern Gray Squirrels as they busily went about their work of collecting and stashing away food for the winter.
Squirrels are beneficial to the maintenance of Ohio’s forests through their habit of burying excess food supplies, such as nuts, seeds, and acorns. Although squirrels dig some of these up to eat during winter, many are left alone. In the spring, those will sprout, giving new growth to the forest.
At the time of settlement, Ohio was 95% forested, making an ideal habitat for squirrels. A common saying is that a squirrel could travel from the Ohio River to Lake Erie without ever having to touch the ground. Agriculture and hunting have reduced their numbers significantly, but they can still be quite common in the right habitat.
Gray Squirrels prefer large expanses of wooded areas of hardwood trees. Although they are usually gray, on occasion they can be black. The mix of squirrels is often blamed on Kent State University, a rumored epicenter for the melanistic (black) squirrels in Northeastern Ohio.
Squirrels have been known to pretend to bury an object if they feel that they are being watched. They do this by preparing the spot as usual and miming the placement of the food while actually concealing it in their mouth, and then covering up the hole as if they had deposited the object.
