Squirrel

Here we are at the American Red Squirrel habitat at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.

Red squirrels tend to cache much of the food they collect, saving it for winter. They have cache storage areas all over their territory. Through this, they often help the environment through the distribution of spruce seeds and other trees. While they are exceptionally good at knowing where all of their stores are, they sometimes forget to go back and thus, a tree is planted. They typically take over an area that is about a half-acre to an acre in size and defend it fiercely. If you have ever hiked through the woods and heard an aggressive chirping of this species, you witnessed a demonstration of their territorial behaviors.

Their diet consists of seeds, conifer cones, nuts, fruits, and fungi. They occasionally feed on invertebrates and small vertebrates, such as insects, bird eggs and baby birds. Of course, they will never pass up on free birdseed, either. Their top predators are owls, hawks, martens and cats.