The Little Nut Job
In typically imaginative storytelling we learned in school of the once magnificent oak forests of Ireland before they fell to the axe and the plough, and of how they were so extensive that a squirrel could scamper the length of the island without ever having to touch the ground. Can you see it in your mind’s eye now, the nimble, bushy-tail traveler covering hundreds of miles bounding from twig to branch?
The tale, however romantic, always seemed a bit tall. Watching grey squirrels effortlessly navigate the arboreal highway above my head as I write this, however, makes me think again. Surely, a grey squirrel could travel the length of Central Beach while remaining high up in the oak canopy? Crossing State Road 60 might be tricky, but we have conveniently provided a web of overhead wires and cables for just such an obstacle. Few animals seem to use the entire 3-dimesional world of our native oak hammock as effectively, and with such enthusiasm, as our native tree squirrel, the eastern grey (Sciurus carolinensis).
2021 appears to be a bumper year for these rodent acrobats. Look out the kitchen window or work (or preferably sit) in the garden and you are likely to be treated to an arboreal version of the flying trapeze, complete with death-defying falls and finger-tip grasps of foliage to both terrify and entertain the onlooker.
Eastern grey squirrels play a critical role in forest regeneration. They perform this vital role in two ways, the hoarding of nuts, including acorns, and the consumption (and eventual elimination) of seeds. Greys are known as scatter-hoarders stashing their loot in many locations across the forest floor (and your garden!). By contrast, their red cousins tend to hoard their prized finds in a central larder which are often in trees. A study of the two species in Indiana by scientists, Goheen and Swihart, found that forest regeneration may suffer from the replacement of the grey squirrel population by the encroaching red squirrel population. As well as being scatter-hoarders, grey squirrels may also be a little scatter-brained, often failing to remember where they stored their precious bounty. This too is good news for the forest. It also explains why I often find an oak seedling emerge in one of our flowerpots.
The vital link between tree and squirrel I guess is more than the reassuring grasp of a branch after a free-fall through the canopy.
ABOUT GREG
Before coming to FAU’s Harbor Branch, Greg earned both his bachelor’s degree and his doctorate degree from University College Dublin in Ireland, researching badgers, a small mammal related to weasels, minks and otters. So, how did he end up in Florida researching whales thousands of miles away? Once Greg graduated with his doctorate degree, he moved to California in search of jobs. After facing several rejections, one person at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in San Diego said he had a small project on belugas no one was working on. He was shocked at such a unique opportunity to work with marine mammals. “I pounced on that,” he says. “And the rest, as they say, is history.”
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Written by Greg O’Corry-Crowe / Photography by Colette Dooley