PREYING ON GRAY SQUIRRRELS

     The adaptable, intelligent and entertaining gray squirrels live abundantly in forests, wood lots, parks and suburbs with maturing trees, and trees in hedgerows between fields in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Each female squirrel bears two litters of young in protective tree hollows each year, with about four babies in each litter, one of the reasons gray squirrels are so omnipresent.   And because they are so numerous, many of them are preyed on by several kinds of predatory birds and mammals in the squirrels' range in the eastern part of the United States.  By eliminating some of the squirrel population, surviving squirrels have more food and shelter opportunities.      

     I have seen a couple of gray squirrels being attacked by predatory birds over the years.  One summer day I was driving through a suburban area with lots of tall trees.  I saw a squirrel running over a lawn parallel to my car and in the same direction of that vehicle.  Suddenly a red-tailed hawk dropped onto that tree rodent and squirrel and hawk tumbled together, the rodent trying to escape and the hawk trying to kill the squirrel.  I don't know the outcome of that attack because I continued to drive in traffic away from those combatants.  But I do know red-tails are big enough and strong enough to subdue squirrels. 

     Another time, at dusk early in winter, I saw a gray squirrel running over a wood lot floor to its home in a tree cavity or a dead-leaf nest it made itself in a tree.  And I saw a great horned owl, that just left its daytime perch, swoop down and grab that squirrel in its long, sharp talons.  After a minute to rest, the owl flew into a tall tree with its catch to dine on its furry victim.

     Mourning doves, house sparrows and gray squirrels are some of the adaptable lawn creatures that come to our feeders the year around.  Those birds and mammals are sometimes ambushed by suburban living and nesting Cooper's hawks in our yard, causing quite a stir in our neighborhood.  Some attacks are successful, but others are not.  

     I've seen a couple mammals carrying dead gray squirrels in their mouths, squirrels they killed.  One mammal was a house cat that caught a gray squirrel in a hedgerow between fields.  The other mammal was a mother mink who carried a dead squirrel down a wood chuck hole to feed her babies.  

     And there are other kinds of  squirrel catchers in southeastern Pennsylvania, including barred owls, red foxes, coyotes, bobcats and long-tailed weasels.  These predators help control the numbers of gray squirrels in any given area.

     The abundant gray squirrels are prolific rodents that feed many kinds of predatory birds and mammals.  Those squirrels are part of several food chains.              

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