Changing squirrel population-Fox to Gray

[bavaria55n]

I have lived here for over 40 years in an old suburb.
There have always been fox squirrels around. They even nested in the two Siberian elm trees in my yard until the trees were removed.
I NEVER say a gray squirrel in all those years until last year. Now there are more of them.
The neighbor across the street sets out corn for them and during feeding time there will be up to 18 squirrels (the most I have been able to count) running around, climbing trees and chasing each other. About 1/5 of them are grays now.
Anyone else ever seen another type of squirrel move into a neighborhood?
Are the grays likely to take over?
I would have thought the bigger fox squirrels would be able to hold their own.
Gary

[Bicycleman]

Gary, when I was a kid running around with a BB Gun [1950s], there were NO squirrels in my mother's back pasture - Live Oaks, Pines, and Pecan trees, but no squirrels.
About 30 years later, there were Gray squirrels that moved in and increased in population.
About five years ago, I hunted my mother's back pasture and killed Gray Squirrels - but I saw some Fox Squirrels that had obviously moved in recently.

[wolverine]

when we built our house 27 years ago we only had fox squirrels, today it's only grays.  what has changed?  our very large walnut tree came down in a storm.  the neighbor's walnut tree was struck by lighting a few years later.  a lot more homes have been built.  the nearby gulley has been cleared of it's underbrush vacating the red foxes that had 2 dens there.  almost all the neighbors have bird feeders.  everyone has a dog.  relevant?  i don't know.  since the gulley has been cleared, we have a lot more squirrels than before.  with the fox squirrels i would see 3 or 4 at time in the walnut tree or on the ground.  this spring i counted 14 grays foraging in the yard at the same time and at this moment there are 6 out back.  maybe it has something to do with the forage?




note: grays will reproduce twice a year with 3 to 8 in the litter.  fox squirrels can reproduce all year with 1 to 4 in a litter. 

[JuryRigger]

when we built our house 27 years ago we only had fox squirrels, today it's only grays.  what has changed?  our very large walnut tree came down in a storm.  the neighbor's walnut tree was struck by lighting a few years later.  a lot more homes have been built.  the nearby gulley has been cleared of it's underbrush vacating the red foxes that had 2 dens there.  almost all the neighbors have bird feeders.  everyone has a dog.  relevant?  i don't know.  since the gulley has been cleared, we have a lot more squirrels than before.  with the fox squirrels i would see 3 or 4 at time in the walnut tree or on the ground.  this spring i counted 14 grays foraging in the yard at the same time and at this moment there are 6 out back.  maybe it has something to do with the forage?





note: grays will reproduce twice a year with 3 to 8 in the litter.  fox squirrels can reproduce all year with 1 to 4 in a litter.

I think you may be right; I do know that fox squirrels seem to spend more time on the ground than the grays; so the lack of ground cover and excess people might be a contributing factor... Where I am fox squirrels are the predominant species; but when you go into the small towns nearby the black-phase grays are all you see... So maybe the grays are more comfortable with suburban and urban areas with lot's of people?
Jesse

[DLP]

I see the same thing here in mid Michigan. When I was a kid, all you saw were Fox and Reds. Up north you seen the Black and Grey. Now It’s still mostly Fox and Reds here, but the Blacks and Greys are abundant too. We have great woods with Oak, Hickory and Beech trees. So the squirrel population has always been plentiful. Other then last week when I shot 5 Fox squirrels, I make it a habit of getting one of each color before filling my limit. Makes the hunt a little more challenging and it last longer too.

[Bicycleman]

In the early '60s, I was in college in the big city near my tiny town.  The campus was about 60 years old - hence some 60-year-old trees - Live Oaks and Pines.  The campus had a large population of Fox Squirrels.  I don't recall ever seeing a Gray in those years.

[HunterWhite]

I think that gray squirrels carry a virus that kills some other squirrels.  The gray squirrels,  and some fox squirrels from the United States were intentionally released into England ab a hundred years ago.  The grays have killed off most of the native red squirrel population.  It's very sad to look at a map of the damage done.

This shows the damage:

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/saving-species/red-squirrels

http://www.britishredsquirrel.org/red-squirrels/red-squirrel-map/

http://www.britishredsquirrel.org/action-and-maps/

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/saving-species/red-squirrels



I don't know if the virus affects the fox squirrels like it does the reds.

Hunter

[Airspace]

From what I've observed fox squirrels are very picky about where they take up residence. Grays on the other hand will and do nest any place they can. Fox squirrels tend to perfer mature forest with trees that bare large amounts of mass crop. They also like to be close to farming areas where corn and soybeans are grown on a regular basis. Any type of disturbance to an area will cause fox squirrels to relocate, once they leave an area greys move in. When I used to hunt if I wanted to hunt fox squirrels I hiked to thickest most obscure part of the land I hunted on. After a few years the farm was cleared to give more grazing land for the cattle and as soon as they started the fox squirrels literally disappeared.

[DLP]

From what I've observed fox squirrels are very picky about where they take up residence. Grays on the other hand will and do nest any place they can. Fox squirrels tend to perfer mature forest with trees that bare large amounts of mass crop. They also like to be close to farming areas where corn and soybeans are grown on a regular basis. Any type of disturbance to an area will cause fox squirrels to relocate, once they leave an area greys move in. When I used to hunt if I wanted to hunt fox squirrels I hiked to thickest most obscure part of the land I hunted on. After a few years the farm was cleared to give more grazing land for the cattle and as soon as they started the fox squirrels literally disappeared.

Your first sentence made me laugh. I have a plastic coffee can screwed to a limb next to my tree stand. I stick my gloves or drink in it while hunting. One afternoon durning bow season I climbed into my stand and a large Fox squirrel jumped out of the can. I didn’t fall. But I sure did shreak as I dove to the side of the ladder.

[Back_Roads]

From what I've observed fox squirrels are very picky about where they take up residence. Grays on the other hand will and do nest any place they can. Fox squirrels tend to perfer mature forest with trees that bare large amounts of mass crop. They also like to be close to farming areas where corn and soybeans are grown on a regular basis. Any type of disturbance to an area will cause fox squirrels to relocate, once they leave an area greys move in. When I used to hunt if I wanted to hunt fox squirrels I hiked to thickest most obscure part of the land I hunted on. After a few years the farm was cleared to give more grazing land for the cattle and as soon as they started the fox squirrels literally disappeared.

x2 What I have noticed when some mature trees fell in recent storms the fox squirrel population lessoned and the greys seemed more abundant, my plan is to attack the greys to even the odds.

[Struckat]

In suburbia here, only grays.
At anytime looking out the window in back you could see 10 or more running around. One neighbor feeds them peanuts which they then burry in my yard. Piglet and the Red Dog eat a lot of peanuts.

Last week we went out and a hawk flew out of the neighbors tree clutching what remained of his gray lunch. So working from home I have been hawk watching.
The grays should have been too, there are now considerable fewer squirrels to be seen. Never managed to see him get one.

But my friend hasn’t been seen for a couple days now. Still a lot less squirrels. But when dreaming out the window yesterday, I see a gray running the top of my fence with nesting materials in its mouth. Off the fence, up my maple tree and on to my roof!
I ran to the other side of the house hoping to see it get into the pine at the front corner, but never saw it. I have new roof and know that it’s all tight, but I am very uneasy about it. My roof is used as a shortcut to go from front to back, but I’ve never seen one carrying nesting materials.

I walked all the way around the house and see no potential points of entry, but trespassing is not tolerated.

There is killn to be done.

[bavaria55n]

Thanks for all the answers.
You seem to know as much about squirrels as airguns.
Loosing large mature trees seems to be a common thread in the Fox squirrels decline and that has happened in my area but still lots of old  Siberian elms and a few cotton woods around.
Will be interesting to see how the population changes.

I have also had a hawk hanging around for the last couple of years. Never seen it with anything but found rabbit fur back behind the garden a few times. Not sure if it is from the hawk or cats. Either way the rabbits are declining from 10 years ago.

Gary

[Bicycleman]

Talking about rabbits - in the woods I hunt, I have seen more rabbits this year.  But I also heard a bunch of Coyotes barking/howling last month.  It seems that the rabbits are the first things that the Coyotes deplete.
On the subject of squirrel habitat, about 30 years ago, the landowner of the woods I was hunting, cleared about four acres of wood [for cow pasture].  This clearing was done a few weeks before the beginning of Fall Squirrel Season.  My brother-in-law hunted with me opening day that season.  Together we killed 16 Fox Squirrels that had relocated in a one-acre zone adjacent to the cleared area.  There were many more that we could not harvest since we had reached the legal limit. 
Habitat is so very important to the survival of any living thing.  Take away the habitat, and you take away the living things.

[Struckat]

Rabbits are on a comeback here since my old cat died a few years ago. They made up a large part of his diet.
Now it’s up to me to keep the garden safe.

Yup, we just keep clearing land. There’s nowhere for the critters to go.

[Bicycleman]

Strange as it might sound to some, there is a new breed of White Tail Deer in Murfreesboro, TN.  They live in and amongst folks.  Those critters have never been shot at or chased by Coyotes in town. 
Okay, that is not unique to the Boro; but there are deer that had been displaced for years.  Then all of a sudden, they realize they can live in town and be very safe from harm. 
Habitat is just what the deer make of it.  The town woods are not as thick and gnarly; and they don't need to be for the deer to be safe here. 
Side note:  I had to hit my brakes the other day when I was bicycle riding on the Greenway to keep from t-boning a buck.  We were both surprised.

[Motorhead]

Out here in my neck of the woods (El Dorado county Sierra foothills ) we have more RED squirrels invading and pushing out / displacing the native GREY squirrels.
In my youth and actually up till late 1990's NEVER saw a red squirrel in our foothills or forests. Tho they have been in the city parks and neighborhoods in the flatland valley for many years.

Cal fish/game/wildlife states the Reds are protected ....  not sure by whom 

[JimD]

This is my 20th year in SC.  Before that I lived in the Pittsburgh Pa area for 15 years.  Before that eastern Kansas.  I've never seen a fox squirrel except in pictures.  I live in a house over 50 years old.  I have oaks that appear to be about that old.  I get so many acorns in the fall they nearly stall my mower.  I don't know if it's the number of people around or what but no fox squirrels.  Plenty of greys that I am addressing.  Near me there is a population of white squirrels, grey squirrel size.  I saw 5 early this week walking my dog.  They are not albinos, their eyes are not red.  Nice to look at.  But I only shoot at the greys that like to run over my roof and chew on my gutters. 

[HunterWhite]

Wow, white squirrels! I've heard of albino squirrels, but not white ones.

I saw black squirrels in Taiwan.

Hunter

[wolverine]

https://www.ci.olney.il.us/visitors/white_squirrels/index.php

[Bicycleman]

Wow, white squirrels! I've heard of albino squirrels, but not white ones.

I saw black squirrels in Taiwan.

Hunter

There is a population of the Black Squirrels in the Atchafalaya Basin in south-central Louisiana.