"I must to rest a little. Loking for nuts is a very hard work!" ;)
Red squirrel in my hometown park :)
Red squirrel or Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is a species of tree squirrel common throughout Eurasia. The red squirrel is an arboreal, omnivorous rodent.
In Great Britain and Ireland, numbers have decreased drastically in recent years, in part because of the introduction of the eastern grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) from North America.
The coat of the red squirrel varies in colour with time of year and location. There are several different coat colour morphs ranging from black to red. The red squirrel, like most tree squirrels, has sharp, curved claws to enable it to climb and descend broad tree trunks, thin branches and even house walls. Its strong hind legs enable it to leap gaps between trees.The red squirrel also has the ability to swim.
The red squirrel is found in both coniferous forest and temperate broadleaf woodlands. The squirrel makes a drey (nest) out of twigs in a branch-fork, forming a domed structure about 25 to 30 cm in diameter. This is lined with moss, leaves, grass and bark. Tree hollows and woodpecker holes are also used.
The red squirrel eats mostly the seeds of trees, neatly stripping conifer cones to get at the seeds within. Fungi, nuts (especially hazelnuts but also beech and chestnuts), berries, young shoots, and meat such as bird eggs are also eaten. Often the bark of trees is removed to allow access to sap. Between 60% and 80% of its active period may be spent foraging and feeding. Excess food is put into caches, either buried or in nooks or holes in trees, and eaten when food is scarce. Although the red squirrel remembers where it created caches at a better-than-chance level, its spatial memory is substantially less accurate and durable than that of grey squirrel; it therefore will often have to search for them when in need, and many caches are never found again.
The red squirrel is protected in most of Europe.
"I must to rest a little. Loking for nuts is a very hard work!" ;)
Red squirrel in my hometown park :)
Red squirrel or Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is a species of tree squirrel common throughout Eurasia. The red squirrel is an arboreal, omnivorous rodent.
In Great Britain and Ireland, numbers have decreased drastically in recent years, in part because of the introduction of the eastern grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) from North America.
The coat of the red squirrel varies in colour with time of year and location. There are several different coat colour morphs ranging from black to red. The red squirrel, like most tree squirrels, has sharp, curved claws to enable it to climb and descend broad tree trunks, thin branches and even house walls. Its strong hind legs enable it to leap gaps between trees.The red squirrel also has the ability to swim.
The red squirrel is found in both coniferous forest and temperate broadleaf woodlands. The squirrel makes a drey (nest) out of twigs in a branch-fork, forming a domed structure about 25 to 30 cm in diameter. This is lined with moss, leaves, grass and bark. Tree hollows and woodpecker holes are also used.
The red squirrel eats mostly the seeds of trees, neatly stripping conifer cones to get at the seeds within. Fungi, nuts (especially hazelnuts but also beech and chestnuts), berries, young shoots, and meat such as bird eggs are also eaten. Often the bark of trees is removed to allow access to sap. Between 60% and 80% of its active period may be spent foraging and feeding. Excess food is put into caches, either buried or in nooks or holes in trees, and eaten when food is scarce. Although the red squirrel remembers where it created caches at a better-than-chance level, its spatial memory is substantially less accurate and durable than that of grey squirrel; it therefore will often have to search for them when in need, and many caches are never found again.
The red squirrel is protected in most of Europe.