• Adult total length: 16 - 22 in. (400 - 550 mm)

• Tail: 6 1/2 - 10 in. (170 - 255 mm)

• Hind foot: 2 - 2 3/4 in. (50 - 69 mm)

• Weight: 1 - 2 1/4 lbs. (360 - 650 g)

• Physical Characteristics: The medium-sized, bushy-tailed gray squirrel has primarily gray upperparts and silvery-gray underparts. The head, midback, sides, and upper surfaces of the feet are washed with yellowish-brown. A whitish ring is present around each eye, and white is present on the backs of the ears. Both albinistic (white) and melanistic (black) individuals have been recorded in the park. An albino individual was collected on the south shore of Fontana Reservoir, opposite Forney Creek on October 31 (Stupka, 1958). A melanistic specimen was seen by Fleetwood ( 1935) near Parson Bald on March 26.

left lateral view of skull and mandible	dorsal view of skull	ventral view of skull

• Range Maps

  North America	Great Smokies

• Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Gray squirrels have been observed at all elevations in the park, but they are rare in the spruce-fir zone (Linzey, 1995b). They are most frequently seen in deciduous forests, especially oak and beech woods, at the lower elevations.
  • Blount Co.: Cades Cove (1,750 - 2,550 feet); Parson Bald; Russell Field.

  • Cocke Co.: Cosby; Indian Camp Creek; Snake Den Mountain (3,600 feet); Inadu Knob (5,000 feet).

  • Sevier Co.: Park headquarters; Greenbrier (1,700 feet, 2,000 feet); Ramsay Prong; Newfound Gap Road (2,000 feet); Copeland Creek; Fighting Creek; Cove Mountain; Injun Creek; Jakes Creek (3,000 feet); Horseshoe Mountain (3,500 feet); Mt. Guyot; Mt. LeConte.

  • State (Tenn. - N.C.) line: Spence Field (4,800 feet).

  • Haywood Co.: Big Creek; Cataloochee; Mt. Sterling.

  • Swain Co.: Deep Creek; Eagle Creek; Between Cooper Creek and Indian Creek; Bradley Fork; Twentymile Creek; Smokemont; near mouth of Mingus Creek; Forney Creek; Huggins Creek; Round Bottom; Hughes Ridge; Hyatt Ridge; Jenkins Ridge; Locust Ridge Trail; Pilot Knob; Richland Mountain; Shuckstack Ridge; Flat Creek (4,700 feet); Noland Divide; Forney Ridge.

Index

Natural History

• Reproduction
  Female gray squirrels usually produce two litters annually. They begin their mating activities about the time of the winter solstice and continue through January and February. Following a 40-day gestation period, young are born during February and March. Another lesser mating period occurs during June and July with resulting births occurring between late July and mid-September. Occasionally births occur at other times of the year. In the park, nursing females have been reported in March (Komarek and Komarek, 1938), in May (Stupka, 1937), in August, and in October (Stupka, 1944). Two males in breeding condition and two half-grown individuals were taken in October by the Komareks. Half-grown young have also been seen in mid-April ( Stupka, 1937). The mother-to-be selects a secure and dry tree den, which she lines with leaves and bark fibers. Here she gives birth to one to six blind and hairless young, usually two or three. She raises the young by herself and drives off all other squirrels that approach her nest. Within a few days hair begins to appear on the young and after five weeks their eyes open. At eight or nine weeks they are weaned and shortly thereafter are abandoned by their mother.

• Longevity
  In captivity, gray squirrels have been known to live for 20 years (Burnell, 1987). A few wild squirrels may survive until they are 8 - 10 years old.

• Terrestrial Ecology
  Gray squirrels spend most of their time in trees. They come to the ground mainly to find food. Foraging for food takes place primarily in early morning and late afternoon. Although gray squirrels are active during all seasons, they may remain in their nests for several days at a time during periods of severe weather. During the winter, several squirrels may occupy a single den cavity. On January 24, 1935, four squirrels were found in a single den in a dead chestnut tree, in the park (Linzey, 1995a).

  The acorns, nuts, buds, and fruits of oaks, hickories, black gum, and beech provide the important year-round staple foods. These food items are supplemented during certain seasons by the buds, flowers, and fruits of trees such as dogwood, silverbell, buckeye, and American hornbeam; corn; mushrooms; and insects. In the park, gray squirrels have been observed feeding on acorns, walnuts, beechnuts, chestnuts, berries of American holly, and the fruits of dogwood, silverbell, buckeye, and American hornbeam trees. In February and March, they have been seen cutting the flowering twigs of sugar maple, red maple twigs with bursting buds, oak twigs with flowers and young leaves, and pine twigs.

  The enterococci Streptococcus faecalis and Streptococcus faecium were recorded from fecal specimens by Mundt (1963).

• Predators and Defense
  An adult squirrel was removed from the stomach of a timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) taken June 24 at Cataloochee ( Stupka, 1951). A bobcat (Lynx rufus) found dead along the Newfound Gap Road (N.C.; 2,600 feet) in December had consumed a gray squirrel (Stupka, 1953). A number of squirrels are killed every year by automobiles on park roads. This number greatly increases during years of hard mast shortages or failures.

• Parasites
  The Komareks reported heavy infestations of fleas on gray squirrels taken during all seasons. Linzey (1973) recorded the flea Orchopeas howardii from a gray squirrel found dead along the Newfound Gap Road, 2,000 feet (Sevier Co., Tenn.) in December.

• University of Michigan, Museum of Zoology
• eNature

Index

Acknowledgements

• Text
  • Dr. Donald W. Linzey, Wytheville Community College - wclinzd@wcc.vccs.edu
  • Christy Brecht, Wytheville Community College - wcbrecc@wcc.vccs.edu

• Photographs
  • Roger Barbour

• Map development
  • Richard Schulz, Great Smoky Mountains National Park - richard_schulz@nps.gov

• Web page design & coding
  • Denise Lim, University of Georgia, Athens
  • John Pickering, University of Georgia, Athens

• Fleetwood, R. J. 1934 - 35. Journal of Raymond J. Fleetwood, wildlife technician, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, for the period May 27, 1934 - June 27, 1935. 499 pp. (Typewritten).

• Flyger, V. 1999. Eastern gray squirrel. Pages 451 - 453. In: D.E. Wilson, and S. Ruff (eds.). The Smithsonian Book of North American Mammals. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.

• Gurnell, J. 1987. The Natural History of Squirrels. New York: Facts on File Publications.

• Komarek, E. V. and R. Komarek. 1938. Mammals of the Great Smoky Mountains. Bulletin of the Chicago Academy of Sciences 5 (6): 137 - 162.

• Linzey, D. W. 1995a. Mammals of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Blacksburg, Virginia: The McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company, Inc.

• Linzey, D. W. 1995b. Mammals of Great Smoky Mountains National Park-1995 Update. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 111(1):1-81.

• Linzey, D. W. 1998. The Mammals of Virginia. Blacksburg, Virginia: The McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company, Inc.

• Linzey, D.W. and A.V. Linzey. 1973. Notes on parasites of small mammals from Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee-North Carolina. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 89(1-2): 15.

• Mundt, J. O. 1963. Occurrence of enterococci in animals in a wild environment. Applied Microbiology 11: 136 - 140.

• Stupka, A. 1935 - 63. Nature Journal, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 28 vols. (years) each with index. (Typewritten copy in files of Great Smoky Mountains National Park library).