Squirrels: Reds vs Greys

[Pond James Pond]

Interesting to read the Red as a pest. Assuming we are talking about the same Red.

It (the species I am familiar with) is smaller than the Grey by some margin.

Here are the varieties I am talking about (photo courtesy of Morelle, 2008)

:

Indeed in the UK, the native Red has all but been wiped out by the NA Grey that came over with the merchant ships. There are a few enclaves of Red still in Great Britain, but very few and only because of active conservation efforts, providing "Red-sized" feeders etc....
Elsewhere the Greys have killed off or out-competed Reds for food and territory.

Definitely a case of Grey Devil on this side of the Pond.

 

[ligonierbill]

We have some black squirrels in north central PA, and I believe those are just a color phase of greys. Other than the coat, they look exactly the same (shot some years ago). Don't know why fox squirrels seem so rare now. They were fairly common where I grew up in western PA, and were considered a real prize.

 

[jrothWA]

Here in Michigan, we have all three...

the Fox Squirrel, Grey (includes the all Black variant) & the Red (Pine) squirrel.

The DNR treat the Red as a varmit and it open season all year, the Fox and Grey are seasoned from September to March.

When in college in the UP,after dinner entertainment was goi walking with various accoutrements ( rifle, pistol or shotgun) and take reds, one of the group took the tails and mailed them to MEPPS Lure Co., for decorating lures.

Fox and Greys are the best eating, Red have a piney taste.

 

[steveNChunter]

I have seen a few solid white squirrels here in the NC mountains over the years, just figured they were an albino or piebald version of the grays. We have the pesky reds here too, they are a little smaller than the grays and they overrun the woods and terrorize the gray squirrels here too. They are referred to as boomers by most people around here, does anyone else know them by that nickname? We also have a few fox squirrels, but I've never shot one because they are pretty scarce. I always figured they would be tasty and they are more substantial, I just don't want to wipe out the few that I do see. We also have small squirrels with patches of skin between their front and back legs that allow them to glide or "fly" from tree to tree. They are known as flying squirrels. I think they are protected though and aren't big enough to mess with anyway as they are pretty much the size equivalent of a ground squirrel. I just shoot the reds as vermin and the grays to eat. It's hard to beat squirrel gravy!

 

[Jo6pak]

The only white (albino) squirrel I have seen was at a taxidermy shop.
Fox Squirrels are also uncommon here, so we also let them go.

We also have flying squirrels up here, they are very rare but they are cool.

Our squirrel season runs from mid-September to end of January.

 

[shortwave]

We had an albino squirrel as a pet when we were kids. Dad found it in the front yard. It was so young and had so little hair that we didn't know it was an albino till later on. Mom fed it with an eye dropper till it got older. As it got older, it would go to the front door when it wanted out and would show up on the front stoop during the evening....

Back on topic of the reds. I try to kill every one I see around here. They will chase the greys as well as the fox squirrels.