Red squirrel
- Features
The red squirrel is an animal everyone knows very well. This is because squirrels do not mind living near people and are not afraid of them. The squirrel's tail is just slightly shorter than its body and is covered in long hairs. Fur is reddish-brown in summer, and greyish brown in winter. The underside is white. In winter the squirrel also has noticeably larger ear-tufts.
Red squirrels are diurnal. They are omnivores, but prefer nuts and the seeds of different plants. They also willingly eat baby birds, bird eggs and snails. During the second half of the summer, squirrels gather winter provisions. They hide these in tree cavities or under the moss, where in winter they find the necessary food by smell.
- Habitat
The red squirrel makes a nest of twigs near the trunk at the top of the tree, or uses old crow's nests and tree cavities, or sometimes even larger nest boxes. Squirrels line their nest with dry grass. Fleas, however, like to live in it and therefore the squirrel has to move home quite often. Usually a squirrel has more than one nest. The squirrel's nest keeps warm, even in freezing weather the temperature won't fall too low in it.
- Size
The squirrel's body length is 20-25 cm, tail length 19-21 cm. The squirrel weighs 170-400 g.