New Hampshire holds 1,395 records of the American red squirrel, ranking it seventh by record count among the 54 New Hampshire mammals tracked in this survey, with a sighting from July 2026 the most recent.
At home in conifer and hardwood alike
A red squirrel builds its life around a good cone crop, caching spruce, fir, and pine cones by the thousand in a single midden it defends year after year. That need is met across most of New Hampshire: the conifer stands of the White Mountains hold the classic version of that habitat, while the mixed hardwood hills of the Merrimack Valley and the state’s southern half still carry enough pine and hemlock to support the same caching habit.
A fall spike that tracks the harvest
Records climb through spring and into summer, then rise again in September as squirrels race to gather that year’s cone crop before it opens and scatters seed on the ground. A red squirrel that skimps on its midden in September risks a lean winter, so the animal gets louder and more visible defending its cache right when the state’s records pick back up.
Status in New Hampshire
The American red squirrel is native to New Hampshire, and NatureServe ranks it S5, secure. Its reliance on a reliable cone crop, rather than any one forest type, is what lets it hold ground across nearly the whole state.
Full species profile
