Squirrel

Description

In its body structure, the squirrel is adapted to a tree-dwelling and climbing lifestyle. It weights about 200-400 g. The snout-vent length is 20-25 cm. The two-lined, bushy tail is 15-20 cm long. It serves as a balancing aid when climbing and as a control tail when jumping. When running, the tail is always held in the air. The sexes cannot be distinguished by size and fur colour.

Squirrels are sole-walkers. They have four long, very mobile fingers with long curved claws on the front paws; the vestigial thumbs have a tiny nail attached. The hind legs are disproportionately long and very strong. The long, curved claws provide the squirrels with a good grip even when climbing quickly head over heels on smooth trunks.

The colour of the upperparts varies from light red to brown-black; the underpart is white or cream, neatly separated from the dorsal coat. The winter coat is much denser than the summer coat. In winter, the coat colour often becomes darker and can also take on grey tones. In the winter coat, squirrels have reddish-brown ear tufts up to 3.5 cm long. In the summer coat, these ear tufts are small or absent. In winter, the otherwise bare soles of the feet are also furred.

Habitat

The typical habitats are predominantly boreal coniferous forests. Only in the European part of the range are squirrels also native to deciduous and mixed forests. As a synanthropic species, they can be frequently found in parks and gardens.

The text is a translation of an excerpt from Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasisches_Eichhörnchen). On wikipedia the text is available under a „Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike“ licence. Status: 19 August 2021