Naturally Speaking
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Photo courtesy of Jerry Davis
Jack pine cones are often hoarded by red squirrels for the tiny seeds inside the woody scales.
Wisconsin's smallest tree squirrel carries a name often incorrectly applied to our fox squirrel. The true red squirrel is a miniscule image of the fox squirrel, which can weigh 35 ounces compared to the red squirrel's 7 ounces.
The varied diet of the red, a.k.a. pine squirrel and chickaree, is dominated by pine seeds and deciduous tree nuts. A jack pine cone may be quite large but the seeds are very small and imbedded between tough, woody scales. Still the cone makes a convenient seed storage container, often piled by the bushel by the small rodent.
In addition to seeds, nuts and some animal matter, piney eats maple sap, often gnawing into twigs allowing sap to leak out, concentrate and become a 55-percent sugar solution instead of a mere four percent fluid.
Pine squirrels are active year-round, except during inclement weather when they stay in a nest, hollow tree or log.
Females have territories they defend and only allow males in the vicinity during the one day when the two mate in late winter.
