Gray squirrels: gutsy survivors

Gray squirrels are fast and skillful climbers, moving swiftly through treetops in leaps and bounds with the help of their bushy tails for balance. Though they see only in shades of black and white, squirrels have excellent eyesight and a keen sense of hearing and smell.

Most gray squirrels are silvery above and off-white on their undersides, with various amounts of brown shading on some. Melanism (black coloration) is a fairly common color-phase of the gray squirrel. Albinism is rare.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) reports that squirrels are the state’s most heavily harvested small-game species. Although populations have declined with loss of habitat due to development and countless encounters with automobiles, squirrel populations were so abundant during the 18th century that bounties were paid on 640,000 squirrels in 1749, according to the PGC.