Of Maryland’s 142 American red squirrel records, 102 come from Garrett County alone, with most of the rest scattered through Frederick and Allegany counties. The map is a portrait of the state’s mountain west, where Swallow Falls and Herrington Manor state parks anchor the record around Deep Creek Lake country.
A conifer specialist at the southern edge
Red squirrels live on conifer seed, cutting green cones and storing them in damp, cool middens that can serve one squirrel for years, and they defend those larders with the loud, rattling chatter that gives them away long before they are seen. Maryland sits near the southeastern edge of the species’ range, and the shaded hemlock, pine, and spruce forests of Garrett County’s highlands are the closest thing the state offers to the northern woods this squirrel favors.
Loudest in early summer
These squirrels never hibernate, and records turn up in every month, but they climb sharply to a June peak, when territorial calling and constant travel between middens and feeding perches make them conspicuous along trails. A quieter secondary rise in October and December fits the fall cone harvest, when a red squirrel cuts cones almost frantically to top off its winter stores.
Status in Maryland
NatureServe ranks the American red squirrel S5, Secure, in Maryland, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
