What is the information about squirrels?

The squirrel is a family of mammalian rodents, which includes the squirrel subfamily and the African ground squirrel subfamily, characterized by a long furry tail. According to the different living environment, it can be divided into tree squirrel, ground squirrel and stone squirrel, etc. animals that are closely related to other animals are also called squirrel-shaped suborders, with nearly 35 genera and 212 species in the world. Let's take a look at the information about squirrels.

Morphological characteristics of squirrels

Generally small, African dwarf squirrels can be as small as 7cm long and about 100g long and weigh about 100g, ranging from 53cm to 73cm long and 5kg to 8kg as large as marmots. The squirrel has no skin wings between the front and rear limbs, strong limbs, sharp claws on the toes and hooks at the ends of the claws, and the female is slightly heavier than the male. Chipmunks and squirrels have cheek pouches on the inside of their cheeks and can store a lot of food. The squirrel is a typical arboreal animal with a slender body and a very small body set off by soft, dense hair. The body length is 20-28 cm, the tail length is 15-24 cm, and the weight is 300-400 grams. The eyes are big and bright, the ears are long, and there is a tuft of hair on the tip of the ears, especially in winter. Summer hair is dark brown or reddish brown, winter hair is gray, smoky gray or grayish brown, and abdominal hair is white. The limbs are slender, the hind limbs are longer, and there are sharp hook claws at the ends of fingers and toes. The tail is hairy and fluffy, often curling toward the back.

Habitat distribution of squirrels

Squirrels are native to the northeast, northwest, southeast and Europe of China, and are distributed all over the world except Oceania. In China, it is mainly distributed in the mountainous areas of three northeastern provinces, northeastern Inner Mongolia, Hebei and northern Shanxi, Sichuan, Ningxia, Gansu, Hunan, Guizhou and other provinces. Foreign countries from the Russian far East, Japan, North Korea, Mongolia, westward has been distributed to Western Europe. In coniferous forests, squirrels are not numerous every year, and the number depends on the number of coniferous seeds in winter, because its food is mainly seeds and fruits, and seeds sometimes account for more than 97%.

Food habits of squirrels

Squirrels like to eat vegetarian and occasionally eat meat. The vegetarian diet mainly consists of Korean pine, spruce, fir, larch, camphor pine and hazelnut, acorn dried fruit and seeds, and meat mainly consists of insects, larvae, ant eggs and other small animals. when the food is green and yellow, the squirrel has another choice. Eat tree buds in spring and berries such as mushrooms, trays and blueberries in summer. In autumn, you can eat whatever you want, but the most palatable ones are Korean pine nuts.

Squirrels have a developed sense of smell

The squirrel has a well-developed sense of smell and can accurately identify the emptiness of pine nut nuts. There are no seeds on the pinnacle that have been abandoned by squirrels. Although the shell of the seed has not been bitten open, the squirrel can still smell it. Squirrels also have the instinct to store food. when the red pine seeds are ripe in autumn, the pine nuts are transported to a safe place to hide. A few or a dozen of them are buried in the ground and reserved for overwintering food. Although the land is covered with snow in winter, squirrels can easily find hidden food, and there are some things that can not be found. But it is precisely because buried in the ground that can not be found to contribute to the spread and spread of Korean pine seeds and promote natural regeneration.