Like other tree-dwelling squirrels, the gray squirrel, feeds mainly on nuts, seeds, fruits, and other
types of plant material. Caching supplies, it may bury an acorn 30 m (100 ft) away from the tree that produced it. The
sensitive noses of some squirrels can recover a store hidden well below the surface. While a forgotten acorn may
germinate and grow into a new tree, gray squirrels can harm more than help a tree population. Especially in Great
Britain, the gray squirrels’ unexplained habit of stripping the bark from young trees has taken its toll. Even oak trees, in
which the species tends to build its bulbous nest, called a drey, are not spared from their gnawing teeth.
Dorling Kindersley/Library of Natural Sounds, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. All rights reserved.
