Species Spotlight : Fox Squirrel
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If your Florida squirrel watching has been limited to the ubiquitous gray squirrel, you’ll be surprised by the large size and color variations of another Florida native, the fox squirrel. Fox squirrels are much less common then gray squirrels, which makes a sighting a special occasion. They also have a heftier body, a longer tail and fur that ranges in color from tawny to gray to dark brown to completely black. A white nose and ears give the fox squirrel’s face a mask-like appearance.
Fox squirrels spend more time on the ground than gray squirrels and are slower moving. They forage for acorns, nuts, fruits, insects, mushrooms, buds and tubers, so they require habitats with an open understory. These include open pine flatwoods, sandhills, mixed pine-hardwood areas and rangeland interspersed with trees. Like the gray squirrel, fox squirrels prefer to nest in hollows in trees, but will also construct bulky nests of twigs and leaves in treetops. Young are usually born in late winter/early spring and in the summer.
Fox squirrels are most common in the Panhandle and northern Florida, but they are protected from hunting throughout the state. Of the three subspecies found in Florida, two are listed as protected species. One of these, the Big Cypress fox squirrel, occurs only in an area south of the Caloosahatchee River in southwest Florida. The other, Sherman’s fox squirrel, is found from southeastern Florida to Georgia and west to about the Choctawhatchee River. Fox squirrels in the western panhandle belong to a less vulnerable, more widespread subspecies.
Where you can find fox squirrels
More information on fox squirrels
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