The living habits of squirrels

The origin of squirrels is northeast, northwest, southeast and Europe. Except in Oceania, squirrels are distributed all over the world. Typical arboreal animals have slender bodies and are very small against soft long hairs. Most of them live in cold temperate coniferous forests and coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forests. Let's take a look at the living habits of squirrels.

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.

Reproductive habits of squirrels

Squirrels are mostly in estrus in spring and summer, and the estrus lasts about two weeks. The suitable age for squirrel reproduction is 8-9 weeks for females and 9-10 weeks for males. The time of pregnancy is about 35 to 40 days, and it can give birth to about 3 babies a year, and each time can give birth to 4 babies. Newborn squirrels are too small to see and use maternal milk as the source of all their nutritional requirements. Squirrels develop so slowly that they don't open their eyes until they are nearly 30 days old. It was not until a month and a half that the little squirrel was willing to go outside for activities.

Nesting habits of squirrels

Squirrels nest on thick branches, or make use of the waste nests of crows and magpies, and sometimes nest in tree holes, eating not only wild fruits, but also twigs, buds, leaves, insects and birds' eggs. As soon as autumn comes, squirrels begin to store food. A squirrel often stores several kilograms of food in several places, and sometimes sees squirrels drying food on trees to keep them from spoiling and mildew.

Natural enemies of squirrels

Although squirrels are the larger species of rodents, they are still threatened by natural enemies because they are not at the top of the food chain. One is small carnivorous birds of prey, such as sables, weasels, ferrets, ferrets, etc., and golden eagles, owls, tiger-headed sea eagles, etc. The other is mainly magpies and crows, which lay hands on squirrel cubs during the breeding season. In a sense, the former natural enemy is good for the healthy reproduction of the squirrel population, because most of the natural enemies are old, weak and sick, while the latter is harmful.

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.