An exploration of play behaviour in Red and Grey squirrels, including erratic false flights.
Amazing resource for all aspects of squirrels (reds & grays in the uk). From what the whiskers actually function for and all the unexpected spots they have whiskers, to sharing dreys with unfamiliar squirrels, to scent marking. This is the site I’ve been trying and trying to find. And it includes cited references.
The video with a tree directly in the middle shows a grey squirrel flipping up and down on the ground. Same squirrel, same spot, same acrobatics, for three days. In one of my own videos, I refer to a bunch of different awkward squirrel behaviors right on the first or second day they meet solid, non-bark ground, as “learning to squirrel.” In other words, still figuring out how to be a squirrel. Three behaviors lent themselves to a “learning to squirrel” activity, and in the latter examples, the timing of a young squirrel coming out beyond its home tree onto grass for possibly the first time.
1. Leaping out onto the flimsiest little tips of branches at the highest heights, from which I’ve always thought that they are testing and calibrating whether a given size branch can accommodate their weight. They usually do this in pairs, with one hanging back, like, “Tommy, I’m not sure that’s a good idea, so yeah, and I’m going to watch from back here where it’s safe.” (Projecting, probably.)
2. Slipping off or scrabbling to stay on fallen logs I refer as highways (fallen fully parallel to the ground), and on-ramps/off-ramps (one end fallen to ground, other end caught up higher, thus creating a horizontal from halfway up the tree to the ground). It really looks like they haven’t quite figured out how to balance when running down bark, rather than climbing with their nails hooked into bark.
3. Flipping and tumbling like a demented untrained acrobat. Also jumping high in place like it’s on a pogo stick. I have always assumed that this was the young squirrel’s first day meeting solid ground and needing to get from point a to point b by walking and running, rather than leaps and bounds. To my eyes, it looks like it hasn’t quite figured out how to get both the front legs and the back legs to pay attention to each other, cuz it’s not on a tree, and it’s never had to just walk, trot, or run before. Until it figures out how not to jump with all four legs at the same time, it’s hopping straight up in the air without any forward progress. So on that day there’s tons of flipping and tumbling in place done by that little youngun.
I usually only see #3 for one day each spring. Which always made me think it was a little kid that mom finally kicked him out of the nest and said, “Go learn to squirrel, Tommy, it’s your day! Don’t come back til you’ve figured out how to tell your legs to work together.” Or, “It’s presidential fitness day, Tommy, and you are going to run from there to there without a tree. Without a tree! Let me see you walk, too! Come back when you can do it without flipping, kid! Then run down that off ramp without slipping or dangling in the air. Gimme ten!” Coach blows whistle.
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