Eurasian Red Squirrel

Habitat: The day-active red squirrels live in coniferous, deciduous and mixed forests, parks and gardens.

Appearance: Squirrels are widespread in Europe. However, they are less common in south-western Europe and on some British islands, where they are sometimes displaced by the arrival of the grey squirrel.

Pairing season: Squirrels have two distinct breeding peaks, in January and May-June. Squirrels use about 12 nests in six months, which can be divided into resting and sleeping nests. They make their nests in natural tree hollows, abandoned woodpecker holes or build their own spherical nests from branches with leaves or needles. The nest is lined with stripped bark, moss, ferns and grass. There is a more solidly built main nest that is used more often and for longer during the winter or as a breeding nest. 2 to 6 young.

Characteristics: Head-torso length average 21 cm, tail length 15-20 cm, average weight 315 grams, age 3-7 years.

Food: In autumn and winter, squirrels mainly eat seeds from trees, such as hazelnuts, beechnuts, chestnuts, pine, spruce and larch cones. A squirrel can eat the seeds from more than 100 pine cones per day. They do not eat acorns from American oak and swamp oak, among others. These contain too much tannic acid, which they find difficult to digest. They also eat acorns from summer and winter oak trees, but these contain less tannic acid. However, in the absence of other food, they will eat these too. They build up as large a winter supply as possible, burying the seeds alone or in small groups in shallow holes. The winter stores are found by smell, but are often forgotten or not found.