Food Habits of Squirrels in Southeast Ohio

Abstract

Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis and S. niger) food habits were investigated in southeast Ohio from March, 1962, through September, 1966, to determine the seasonally important food species and to relate these data to present timber management guides for the central hardwoods. The distribution of the 833 samples was: winter-60; spring-77; summer-144; fall-552. The important foods in decreasing order of occurrence were hickory nuts, beechnuts, acorns, fungi, black walnuts, plant leaves, yellow buckeye nuts, tuliptree samaras, flowering dogwood drupes, ironwood nuts, and hop hornbeam nuts. Hickory nuts, beechnuts, and acorns occurred in 75.8 percent of the samples and made up 67.4 percent of the total volume of foods eaten. Animal foods, chiefly insects, occurred in 15.1 percent of the samples but made up less than 2 percent of the total volume. Fall food preferences were similar between gray and fox squirrels except that beechnuts were found in significantly greater frequency in gray squirrel stomachs. Live-trap capture frequencies suggested that gray squirrels utilized the beech-maple type in early fall more than fox squirrels. Hickory nuts and beechnuts were ingested significantly more often and in greater amounts than acoms during the fall. Squirrel food production was adequate under past uneven-age silvicultural methods but recent acceptance of even-aged regeneration silviculture using clearcuts may prove detrimental to some squirrel food species. Present market conditions discriminate against beech, hickory, elm, maple, and buckeye, all important squirrel foods. Silvicultural techniques should aim to retain 9-18 ft2 of basal area per acre of these species on areas where squirrel management is important. For forests where timber production has priority, the suggested basal area should be retained as crop trees until rotation age following clearcuts. Because of their market value, the oaks, black walnut, and tuliptree will be well represented in most regenerated stands. Our purpose in investigating the food habits of squirrels was to provide quantitative data regarding the seasonally important food species and to relate these data to current timber management guides applied to forested areas where squirrel management is also important. The qualitative food preferences of gray and fox squirrels have been determined for much of the squirrel range encompassed by the central hardwood and Appalachian Highlands forest regions (DenUyl 1962: 137, and Korstian 1962:178 for regional boundaries). Observations of squirrels in the act of feeding, the characteristic cuttings of feeding squirrels, and squirrel food caches have all been utilized in food habits studies (D. L. Allen 1943:160, Brown 1 A contribution of Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Project, Ohio W-105-R. 2 Present address: Department of Botany, Ohio University, Athens. 294 and Yeager 1945:496, J. M. Allen 1952:16, Barber 1954, Uhlig 1955:84). A quantitative determination of squirrel food habits based on large samples of stomachs has not been reported, chiefly because of the difficulties in identifying the finely masticated stomach contents of these animals (Barber 1954). Studies that utilized squirrel stomachs were either limited in scope (Baumgartner 1940:84) or were based on stomachs collected only during the fall months (Chapman 1938:320). We acknowledge the assistance of James Ely, Ohio Division of Wildlife, in collecting squirrels; Kenneth Russell, Ohio Division of Wildlife, for statistical assistance, and Dr. W. C. Stehr, Department of Zoology, Ohio University, Dr. W. G. Gambill and M. T. Vermillion, Department of Botany, Ohio University, for aid in identifying insect, moss, and fungi material, respectively. We thank Leroy Korschgen, Missouri Conservation Commission, Dr. Henri This content downloaded from 157.55.39.27 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 06:34:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms FOOD HABITS OF SQUIRRELS IN OHIO Nixon et al. 295 Seibert, Ohio University, and Kenneth Laub, Ohio Division of Wildlife, for critically reading the manuscript.