Observations by nocea1

Scientific & Common Name(s)
The scientific name for the commonly known Eastern Gray Squirrel is Sciurus carolinensis. This animal is a member of the mammalian class and has an omnivorous diet. It has predominantly gray fur, but can often be seen as dark-brown colour, and a large bushy tail.

Habitat & Geographic Range
The Eastern gray squirrel is indigenous to eastern North America, specifically south-eastern Canada and the north-eastern United States (Swihart, Goheen, Schnelker, & Rizkalla, 2007). However, the species has been introduced throughout several regions of western North American, and has been recorded as an invasive species in Europe and Africa (Swihart, Goheen, Schnelker, & Rizkalla, 2007). The topography of their habitat is generally flat, and the vegetation of the area is composed of mixed deciduous tress, ornamental shrubs and lawn grass (Thompson, 1977).
Size/Weight & Lifespan
The lifespan of the Eastern gray squirrel has been measured approximately to be over 20 years (Gorbunova, Bozzella & Seluanov, 2008). They are medium-sized rodents with an average body mass of 500 grams (Gorbunova, Bozzella & Seluanov 2008).

Diet
The Eastern gray squirrel’s dietary habits are inconsistent with previously suggested diet models. The species seems to reject smaller, more energetically profitable food items for larger, less energetically profitable food items that they can easily carry to safety in order to consume without the threat of a predator (Lima & Valone, 1986). This displays that the gray squirrels are very conservative with their diet choice. In addition, they often select food items that closely resemble those that are found in habitats that contain native vegetation (Thompson & Thompson, 1980). Their diet is also controlled by the seasons, as with different weather patterns they utilize different foods (Thompson & Thompson, 1980). Due to their omnivorous appetite some of the foods the gray squirrel consumes includes varying insect species, nestling birds, different types of seeds, and nuts (Gorbunova, Bozzella & Seluanov 2008).

Reproduction & Communication
The mating behaviours of the Eastern gray squirrel vary depending on the season. These mating behaviours only occur during two periods, the summer mating period, which occurs between late-May to late-June, and the winter mating period, which occurs late-January to mid-February (Thompson, 1977). Sexual behaviour can be divided into four phases: pre-chase behaviour, the mating chase, copulation, and post-coital behaviour (Thompson, 1977). The two most commonly studied methods of communication between gray squirrels are through tail movements and positions, as well as, vocal alarm calls. It is has been noted that communication through their tails denotes information that is related to aggression (Pardo, Pardo & Shields, 2014). The versatility of tail positioning provides the animals with the potential to encode an abundance of information (Pardo, Pardo & Shields, 2014). In addition, they use vocalizations in the presence of danger in order to influence the behaviour of the receivers (Simmons & McRae, 2014). The rate, duration, and structure of the alarm calls contain information regarding the threat being imposed and the caller (Simmons & McRae, 2014). The “kuks” and “quaas” of the gray squirrel – a mixture of different structural call types – indicates information on the potential internal influences within the squirrel (Simmons & McRae, 2014).

Predation: Does this animal have any predators?
Although squirrels are a difficult prey to catch because of their exceptional ability to climb trees and their jumping ability, they are still targets to multiple predators. These predators include, hawks, owls, foxes, racoons, and snakes (Gorbunova, Bozzella & Seluanov 2008).

Conservation Status
Currently there are no concerns regarding threats posed on the Eastern gray squirrel species. However, problems involving forest fragmentation, which is the breaking of larger forested areas into smaller forested patches, may cause a major problem to the species if it is not controlled. This threat is due to the population of gray squirrels decreasing in areas that have less than 12.5% of forest in their surrounding landscape, therefore concluding that this species is sensitive to forest fragmentation (Swihart, Goheen, Schnelker, & Rizkalla, 2007).

Did You Know? (Fun fact)
A fun fact about the Eastern gray squirrel is that it’s scientific name comes from the Greek words meaning shadow and tail, as well as, the reference to the Carolinas, which is where the species was first documented.

References
Gorbunova, V., Bozzella, M. J., & Seluanov, A. (2008). Rodents for comparative aging studies: from mice to beavers. AGE, 30, 111-119.
Lima, S. L., & Valone, T. J. (1986). Influence of predation risk on diet selection: a simple example in the grey squirrel. Animal Behaviour, 34, 536-544.
Pardo, M. A., Pardo, S. A., & Shields, W. M. (2014). Easter gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) communicate with the positions of their tails in an agnostic context. American Midland Naturalist, 172, 359-365.
Simmons, B. A., & McRae, T. R. (2014). Hidden Markov models of eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) alarm calls. Adaptive Behaviour, 22, 180-188.
Swihart, R. K., Goheen, J. R., Schnelker, S. A., & Rizkalla, C. E. (2007). Testing the generality of patch and landscape-level predictors of tree squirrel occurrence at a regional scale. Journal of Mammology, 88, 564-572.
Thompson, D. C. (1977). Diurnal and seasonal activity of grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). Can. J. Zool., 55, 1185-1189.
Thompson, D. C. (1977). Reproductive behaviour of the grey squirrel. Can. J. Zool., 55, 1176-1184.
Thompson, D. C., & Thompson, P. S. (1980). Food habits and caching behaviour of urban grey squirrels. Can. J. Zool., 58, 701-710.