Observations on the Homing Behavior of the Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)

Abstract

Very little is known about the homing behavior or territory of many common mammals, including the gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). Hamilton (4) stated that homing behavior is apparently well developed in most of our native mammals and cites examples of deer mice (Peromyscus) returning from distances up to two miles, following their being trapped and liberated at various removes from the home site. Hamilton also has taken red squirrels (Sciurus hudsonicus) and eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus) from their home territory and found that they soon returned from distances of slightly more than a mile, and 700 paces, respectively. Territorial boundaries of the pine squirrel (Sciurus fremonti) in Colorado and the Douglas squirrel (Sciurus douglasii) in Oregon have been studied by Gordon (3). The former species guards an acre or two; the latter has a territory of not more than half an acre that is defended from other squirrels that enter for food. The fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) in Ohio is reported to be normally sedentary with an average cruising radius of 149 yards, and a maximum of 375 yards (1). The annual cruising radius of the gray squirrel has not been well defined, but it is generally accepted to be less than half a mile, particularly in winter when some territories have a radius of only a few hundred feet. An occasion to study homing behavior as distinct from normal territorial movements occurred when a grain shed on the property of the University of Connecticut, at Storrs, was broken into by gray squirrels in 1938. The squirrels fed on corn and mixed grains more or less continually throughout the critical winter months until the spring of 1940. During this time the grain supply beca e an integral part of their territories so that by the winter of 1939-40 the shed was visited daily by at least one of the animals and occasionally thre( squirrels were discovered in the building at one time.