Eastern gray squirrel
Sciurus carolinensis
Tree squirrel of eastern North American hardwood forests that feeds on the nuts and mast of oaks, hickories, walnut, pecan, and beech. It scatter-hoards surplus nuts in shallow single-seed caches each autumn and recovers them by memory and smell; the substantial fraction never recovered germinates, making the squirrel an effective disperser that aids regeneration of oak and other heavy-seeded trees. It nests in tree cavities and builds leaf-and-twig dreys high in the canopy, so mature nut-bearing trees supply both its food and its shelter.
Conservation
IUCN Red List: Least Concern; abundant and secure across its native range and not federally listed. Native populations are stable; the species is, however, an invasive that displaces native red squirrels where it has been introduced in Europe.