Getting a Little Squirrely

Squirrels are fascinating, and we have 25 species of the Squirrel Family in our region, according to David Moskowitz’s Wildlife of the Pacific Northwest. Here I’ll share some of my encounters with and photos of five local species, some of which I didn’t even realize were included in this family. NOTE: You may need to scroll up and down or refresh this page to view the photos. John Muir described the Douglas squirrel as “by far the most interesting and influential of the California sciuridae.” Here in Washington, I agree with John Muir’s assessment, and also consider the Douglas squirrel the most adorable. Our garden is surrounded by coniferous forest, so every day we watch these aerial acrobats from windows or sitting out on the deck.

Have you ever found a pile of scales from Douglas Fir cones at the base of a tree? Douglas squirrels mostly eat seeds of coniferous trees, like this one munching on a cone from a Douglas Fir tree. The squirrel and the tree were named for 19th Century Scottish botanist David Douglas. The cone’s scales can pile up several feet across if they’re tossed down from the same branches by generations of squirrels. Douglas squirrels also favor mushrooms (spreading beneficial fungi needed by our forests), berries, birds’ eggs (sadly), and the sunflower seeds in our bird feeder. Unlike some squirrels, they tend to store their provisions in just one location.

Here’s a mama Douglas squirrel looking down at me in our garden. Such perfect balance. She can give birth to up to six kits in a litter. But we’ve only noticed twin youngsters chasing each other fearlessly up, down, and around tree trunks and scampering all over the garden and deck. Squirrels must develop a strong grip to hang onto tree trunks, and the young ones seem to build their skills through play.

Professor Robert Full at U.C. Berkeley studies squirrels’ aerial movements in order to understand their agility, then to apply them in robotic inventions, a perfect example of biomimicry in engineering. He noticed that squirrels’ acrobatics depend on quick decision making. Next time you see a Douglas squirrel leaping from branch to branch, watch how their spatial genius helps them decide which branches would bend under their weight (only 5-10 ounces!), and how far they can jump. I hope their acrobats and curiosity don’t lead them to explore and get trapped in your chimney, which is what happened to a friend of mine.

If you see a larger squirrel that’s gray, it won’t be a Western gray squirrel, as there are fewer than 1,400 left, and none around here. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is trying to increase protection for Western gray squirrels, upgrading their status from threatened to endangered under Washington’s endangered species law. Across much of the US, and here in Port Townsend, we have the Eastern gray squirrel, many of them. They’re a threat to our Douglas squirrel, and also to the native Eurasian red squirrel in Europe. Along with the invasive European Green Crab, the Eastern gray squirrel is listed as one of the world’s 100 worst invasive species!

In my opinion Eastern gray squirrels lack the charming personalities of the Douglas squirrel, but they are considered one of the most intelligent and prolific squirrels on Earth. They’re much heavier than the Douglas squirrel, 14-21 ounces, and they are powerful jumpers. I read that they live five years in nature and up to 15 years in captivity. For centuries squirrels were kept as pets. The National Gallery London features a portrait of a woman with a squirrel in the 1520s, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has a 1765 painting of a boy with a chained (!) flying squirrel. Even President Warren Harding kept a pet squirrel named Pete in the 1920s. Fortunately it’s illegal to keep a pet squirrel in Washington state, but not in all states.  

Our local Townsend’s chipmunk is not named for our town. Port Townsend Bay was originally named “Port Townshend” by Captain Vancouver in honor of his friend the Marquis of Townshend. This enchanting little critter was named for John Kirk Townsend, an early 19th-century ornithologist. You may be familiar with three birds also named for him, including the Townsend’s Warbler. Townsend’s chipmunks live in the Pacific Northwest, mostly in Western Washington, where they prefer dense forests and brush thickets. Notice their five dark stripes and four lighter stripes on their back, and three brown and two gray stripes on their faces.

Chipmunks are the smallest members of the squirrel family, and Townsend’s chipmunks weigh only about four ounces. You can see here that they’re agile climbers. They eat many of the same foods as the Douglas squirrel, using large cheek pouches to gather and carry their food to store it in an underground den or a tree cavity. I’m always delighted to see a chipmunk, and we’re lucky to have occasional summer visitors in our garden. I’ve also spotted them perched in trees in Ft. Worden and on Lopez Island, and racing across the campground road at Salt Creek County Park near Port Angeles. Please drive carefully. Chipmunks and squirrels have not evolved to avoid cars.

The Olympic chipmunk Neotamias amoenus caurinus, a subspecies of the Yellow-pine Chipmunk, is in the same genus as the Townsend’s Chipmunk, Neotamias townsendii. To my untrained eye, the Olympic chipmunk looks just like a Townsend’s chipmunk, but it’s supposed to have more brightly colored stripes. There’s no range overlap, so if you’re 5,000 feet up in the Olympic Mountains, it’s the endemic Olympic chipmunk, found only in the subalpine zone of the Olympic Mountains, and nowhere else in the world.

The main difference I’ve noticed between the two chipmunk species is that the omnivorous Olympic chipmunk is always, always eating. When you hike up in the Olympics to Hurricane Hill or from Obstruction Point, you’re sure to see them… eating! They have a short season to consume and store their food before the snows arrive and they enter hibernation. Sometimes they hide from hikers, and other times seek them out for handouts. Once a chipmunk climbed up my friend’s boot in the parking lot, looking for a treat, which she did not provide. For their safety, it’s best not to feed them so they continue to eat their natural diet. Hikers at Obstruction Point are asked to check under their parked cars for these curious critters before starting their cars.

Did you know that marmots are in the Squirrel Family? When the snow melts in Olympic National Park, voracious Olympic marmots emerge from their hibernation and seem to eat everything in sight. Here’s one in June stuffing lupine leaves into its mouth, not even noticing me a few feet away on the trail. I later learned that tender lupine leaves and glacier lilies are two of their favorite foods. Olympic marmots are another endemic species, living only above 4,000 feet in meadows of the Olympic Mountains. National Park biologists consider them some of the most social and gregarious of all our local mammals. Marmots are the largest members of the Squirrel Family. By the time they hibernate, Olympic marmots have doubled their body weight to about 15 pounds, which they need during their seven to eight month hibernation.

I love to hike on the trails near Hurricane Ridge and listen for the Olympic marmot’s piercing whistle, an effective method of communication across distances for family members. Then I scan with binoculars to spot them guarding their burrows, racing across a meadow, or spreading out on a boulder in the sun. One July day I saw this Olympic marmot molting, shedding much of its shaggy coat. Later in the summer, it’s exciting to see pups emerge from their burrows to chase, wrestle, and play with their siblings. We are so lucky to live among so many delightful and clever members of the Squirrel Family.