Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, December 5, 1993                   TAG: 9312020053
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Patricia Held
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GRAY SQUIRRELS CAN BE A NUISANCE BUT ARE FUN TO WATCH

The squirrel will adjust to any neighborhood. For city people, squirrels are about the only wildlife they know, and squirrel-watching is just about as interesting as bird-watching.

The most popular member of the rodent family, squirrels' fierce independence and clownlike feats give them irresistible personalities.

Squirrels are tree dwellers, belonging to the family Squirridae. Species found locally include the gray, fox red and flying squirrels. But it is the 20-ounce gray furry creatures that come to mind for most of us when we consider this breed.

As its name indicates, the gray squirrel is a grayish color washed with a tawny hue. Sometimes its fur is all black, but this is a melanistic color phase common only in certain parts of the country.

The most interesting feature of this little animal is its tail. The Greeks referred to the squirrel as "shadow tail" or "he who sits in the shadow of his own tail." Without its bushy tail, the squirrel would look more like a rat.

But its tail does more than enhance the squirrel's appearance. It also aids the animal's survival. Usually quite agile, the squirrel will sometimes take a wrong step when swinging through the treetops. If it does, its tail comes to the rescue by slowing its descent.

The squirrel's tail is also useful as a shield when fighting. In the cold weather, the animal wraps its tail around itself like a blanket, and in the rain the tail serves an an umbrella.

The squirrel has a tremendous appetite. Omnivorous, it eats fruits, nuts, seeds, eggs, insects, birds and mice. Unfortunately, its boundless appetite can get the squirrel into lots of trouble. A squirrel can chew up wires and phone cables and cause chaos for homeowners. It also eats its way through attics, tears up lawns, and consumes more than its fair share of birdseed.

The squirrel is extremely adaptable and can adjust its diet to the seasons and habitats. In the city, squirrels are friends and beggars of the parks.

In autumn we find squirrels storing nuts for winter. As the colder months approach, we see them perching in our feeders where they enjoy a never-ending supply of quality food.

In the autumn when the nuts ripen, the squirrels harvest and bury them as quickly as they fall to the ground. Instead of storing the nuts in one central spot, squirrels bury them haphazardly throughout their range. Sometimes as many as 10,000 nuts are stored by one squirrel in a year's time. Although the squirrel is not clever enough to find them all, it is usually able to locate enough to survive the winter.

Unfortunately for us, given a choice between collecting nuts all day or helping itself to food from a well-stocked feeder, a squirrel usually will choose the latter. A feeder filled with sunflower seeds and peanut hearts is impossible to resist. All it takes is one jump, and the squirrel has the best seat in the house!

While squirrel-watching at the feeder can be entertaining, thwarting their efforts at stealing feed has become a sport in itself. Readers with squirrel-proof bird feeder ideas are invited to send them to the address below. I'll include some of the best and most innovative ideas in a future column.

\ We goofed: Several astute readers called or wrote to us to point out our error in the "horn and antler" column that appeared Nov. 21. The photo that appeared with the story was not of a moose as indicated, but of a caribou.