Urban animal: fast and furry

Most of the mammals that have found a place to live in our cities lead a rather secluded life being active late in the evening or early in the morning, or even at night (like bats). The one species that you are likely to encounter during the day in large parks, in urban woodland and even in housing estates planted with oaks, is the Squirrel. In Britain this urban squirrel is almost exclusively the Grey Squirrel that originated in America. In Europe -except for some enclaves in Italy and France- the resident rodent is the Red Squirrel. Squirrels are distant cousins of mice, rats, Guinea pigs, voles and beavers.

Squirrels come in several natural shades; they are best-known as being (orange) red (shown right), hence the name Red Squirrel. The underside is always white or cream, the rest of the coat can vary from black via deep brown to red and a sandy yellow. The subspecies fuscoater from South Germany and Austria is dark brown in colour (left). These arboreal omnivorous rodents are important for the spread of some trees as they stash large quantities of seeds like acorns as winter food. In autumn (middle) they can be seen carrying winter food to a cache.