Rodents with slender bodies, long bushy tails and large eyes. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels such as chipmunks and prairie dogs, and flying squirrels.
This entry covers a whole group, so the answers describe a typical member. For a specific one, see Chipmunk, Prairie dog, Marmot, Flying squirrel.
Quick answers
What is it?Mammal
Carnivore?Omnivore
Dangerous?No
Domesticated?No
Awake when?Daytime
Hibernates?No
Kept as a pet?No
Do people eat it?In places
Grey squirrels fed Native Americans and colonists and are still eaten; Mississippi harvests 2.5 million a year.
At a glance
Found inWorldwide
HabitatForest, Towns, Grassland
ColoursGrey, Red, Brown
SizeSmall
Length10–14 cm (pygmy squirrels) to 1.27 m (giant flying squirrel)
Weight12–26 g (pygmy squirrels) to 8 kg or more (marmots)
Legs4
Covered inFur
Lives alone
Lives for5–10 years
Can swim
In the wild
- Where it lives
- Native to the Americas, Eurasia and Africa, and introduced by people to Australia.
- What it eats
- Mainly seeds and nuts, plus fruit, fungi and green plants. Many also eat insects, and some take eggs and small animals.
Did you know
Buries nuts to eat later, but by spring many have started to sprout.
In temperate regions, early spring is the hardest time for squirrels, because the nuts they buried start to sprout.
Often confused with
- Chipmunk
Chipmunks are small, striped, ground-living squirrels.
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