Our national past time may not be baseball but instead be squirrel watching. So many of us observe them and at parks feed them. The eastern gray squirrel is a small mammal with the often observed and loved skill of gnawing. They belong to the order Rodentia which is from the Latin word rodere, which means “to gnaw”.

Fossil records of about 3.5 million years show records of the ancestors of the gray squirrel as well as their hundred of cousins flung around the world. flying squirrel, fox squirrels, red squirrels, Persian squirrels, pine squirrels and tassel-eared squirrels.

That bushy tail of the gray which reminds one of a question mark makes up more than half the size of this 18″ mammal. Squirrel observers may believe they know the males from the females but actually they are both between 12 and 26 inches in length and of the same color They make their nests in the hollow part of atree or on a branch or wedged in the fork of a tree.

Females have two litters one between February and April and another in mid summer. Pregnancy of only 40 to 44 days gives three to five newborn who are nursed for as long as ten weeks. In captivity squirrels live up to 20 years but their life span in the wild is cut drastically short to only one year because they have countless prey including dogs, red-tailed hawks, crows, weasels, owls, foxes, raccoons cats, cars and their greatest threat humans who have a penchant for shooting them.

Any squirrel observer has seen the mating chases of them spinning around tree trunks, and scampering together around the yard. When those hormones kick in they’ll chase around, across and over most anything. A fragrant hormone from the female scents the air when she goes into estrus. That waltz and the undulating movements are caused when the male sniffs around the private parts of a female.

She then coyly moves a step or two away which appears to be a waltz He sniffs even the grass where she sat. He sniffs her shadow and she dances away. Finally he moves in close for an embrace and like a dancer grabs her around the middle. She moves her tail to accommodate him and they mate. But this happens only if she allows him access.