Douglas Squirrel; the ultimate BC resident

The time is rapidly approaching when we will see comparatively little wildlife for a few months here on the Sunshine Coast. The summer has gone, all of our larger wildlife is stocking up to get ready for the winter and in a few months time will mostly disappear from daily view. All except our squirrels of course, as they hang around, quite noticeably, all year.  Not for us the most common of squirrels, the Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), which can be found all over Canada but, inexplicably, is absent from a small coastal strip of the Lower Mainland, including here. Nor that introduced menace you can see running around all over Vancouver in grey and black, the Eastern Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) which, despite not having a specific need for a home range or territory and therefore appearing more or less everywhere, hasn’t made it here (yet). No, for us that most elegant, curious, annoyingly ever-cheerful, least easily impressed or scared off of squirrels, the territorial Douglas Squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii), also known in various areas (but not here; we just call them “squirrel” as that is all we have) as chickaree or pine squirrel.

while we are at it, throwing all those Latin names about, a piece of trivia: “Tamiasciurus” means “the guardian who sits in the shadow of its tail”, something which both Red and Douglas Squirrel kind of do by curling their tails over their back when at rest, and the Grey Squirrel doesn’t, which is why it is only “Sciurus” and not Tamia…

even if, unlikely as it would be if you spent any time here, you have never seen one of these, chances are you will have heard it chirping in the trees. The sound it makes is unlike anything else and certainly not what you’d expect from a squirrel and often or easily confused for a bird which is why some nature website list this thing under birds… “Ils sont fous, ces naturalists!” as my hero Obelix doubtlessly and justifiably would have said.. try www.bear-tracker.com/dsqrlscold.mpg for a flavour… When it is alarmed however, and it serves the general wildlife community as a kind of watch dog, its noise is, highly appropriately I guess, a bit more like the barking or “yelping” of one of those irritating small dogs.

Coastal Blacktail Deer are curious, but the Douglas Squirrel beats it by miles. Generously. Go into the woods and, if you have even just a little bit of an eye or an ear for it, you’ll spot it running down a tree trunk to come and have a better look at you and engage into some kind of conversation which, to date, I have been unable to unravel but can go on for quite some time, especially if you answer it. Always at least say hello to it; it gives you more time to observe it and see it in action before it disappears as it decides you are not only of no real interest, but actually totally irrelevant. Quite a feat for an animal that size to put me so comprehensively and succinctly in my place.

there is little danger of confusing Red and Dougals Squirrels especially in their summer coats. Winter coats are less flattering but then that counts for all of us anyway. The Red Squirrel is… well.. substantially red I guess, or maybe somewhat more orange, a touch browner during the summer; the Douglas Squirrel summer coat however is unmistakeable: the back is darkish olive-brown above, it has blackish ear tufts, black flank stripe, orange feet, legs and belly, and a white eye ring. The tail is reddish brown with a white tip and black band near the tip. Quite a stunner..

Douglas Squirrel amongst other things differs in from other squirrels in that it hasn’t got cheek pouches so it cannot stuff itself and carry the loot away homewards; it has to be processed on the spot, be it buried, peeled or eaten. Pine cones or Douglas Fir cones are without a doubt its favaourite, but it will also eat insects, berries, flowers, young mice and bird’s eggs, given the chance. Watching a Douglas Squirrel eating a pine or fir cone is an experience; it is as methodical as a racoon albeit messier. The cone is stripped in a spiral fashion from the bottom upwards to remove the scales and get to the nuts. The evidence of this can be seen everywhere underneath trees in the form of piles of scales. Although we often call these “middens”, they are rather more like dirty lunch tables and leftovers, rather than the sites of hidden caches of food which is what real middens would be.

what makes it so Canadian or even BC to me though, is its wasteful habit to have both a winter residence and a summer cabin. In winter it lives in holes in trees, nicely protected from the weather, lined with moss and other vegetation; in the summer though it builds ball-shaped soft nests in trees, occasionally using old bird’s nests and camps “outside”. Nesting and young can happen in either though, there doesn’t seem to be a fixed pattern, even though hiding and bringing up young in tree-holes would appear to be a so much safer and sensible option.

Douglas Squirrels are a uniquely western BC, eastern Pacific Coast species. Ranges between Red and Douglas Squirrels can overlap and do so in some places. Although its is often said that Grey Squirrels drive out or out-compete Douglas or Red Squirrel, there is actually very little evidence of that, if any at all. All three species live happily together in Stanley park, Vancouver. The real issue is more likely that Douglas Squirrel is highly dependent on trees, especially conifers, and unfortunately development means less of those. In contrast Grey Squirrel is much more catholic in its habitat requirements and, not being territorial whatsoever, can adapt much easier to changed habitat and food sources, effectively a cuddly rat, which is why they seem to be doing very well in former Douglas and Red Squirrel areas.

another “urban myth” is that Douglas Squirrel is dependent on “old growth” forests. That is a little bit of a fetish here and frequently reflects more of our desire to stop logging and save our old-growth forests than actual habitat requirements. Here, even in the more developed and urban areas of the Sunshine Coast, Douglas Squirrels are doing fine, thank you very much, in second growth, even younger, and mixed deciduous/conifer woodlands. I have one running along my garden fence a few times most days and see them everywhere in areas I work in, developed or not, albeit not so much in our down-town or rather down-village cores.

but there is nothing quite as enjoyable as watching them cavorting, playing, running along, distracting me and chattering at me. Until they tell me I am completely irrelevant of course and disappear to get on with their business… I am almost beginning to look forward to winter.. well... not until after the imminent salmon runs of course...