Red squirrel
Sciurus vulgaris
— Where the name comes from
Sciurus comes from the Greek skíouros: skiá, shade, and ourá, tail. The squirrel is, quite literally, the animal that shades itself with its own tail — that sits in the shadow of its own tail. Vulgaris, common. Few etymologies describe an animal’s posture so well.
— Facts
- Group
- Mammals · Mammalia
- Order
- Rodents
- Habitat
- Coniferous and broadleaf woodland
- Range
- Eurasia, from the Iberian peninsula to Japan
- Size
- 19–23 cm, plus 15–20 of tail; 250–350 g
- Diet
- Seeds, acorns, hazelnuts, fungi, buds
- Lifespan
- 3–7 years
— Characteristics
- 01
The bushy tail is a balance beam when leaping, a rudder, and a blanket in sleep.
- 02
Hides food in hundreds of small caches scattered across its range.
- 03
In Europe it is threatened by the introduced and more competitive American grey squirrel.
— What sets it apart
The squirrel forgets many of its caches — but the forgetting is not waste. Every acorn and every hazelnut buried and never recovered is a potential tree, planted at the right depth and already fertilised. Whole stretches of oak and hazel woodland exist thanks to the absent-mindedness of squirrels: few animals have reshaped the temperate forests as much as this small, unwitting sower.
