Tennessee holds 379 records of the American red squirrel, and among the ones tied to a named place, 68 alone come from Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
A boreal squirrel stranded on a mountaintop
Across most of its range this squirrel lives in the conifer forests of the northern United States and Canada, but in Tennessee it survives only where that same cold, spruce-fir forest still stands, on the highest ridges of the Unakas and Smokies and on Roan Mountain. Left behind as the last ice age retreated and cooler forest pulled back north, Tennessee’s red squirrels are a holdover confined to a shrinking island of high-elevation habitat rather than part of one continuous range.
Middens and a loud claim to territory
It caches conifer cones by the hundreds in central middens, often the same pile reused and added to for years, then defends that stash and the surrounding territory with a sharp, rattling chatter aimed at anything that gets too close, squirrel or otherwise. Reports climb through spring, peaking in April and May, when cone-caching and territorial disputes are both easiest to notice.
Status in Tennessee
NatureServe ranks the American red squirrel S4, Apparently Secure, and lists it as native to Tennessee. USGS NAS doesn’t list it as nonindigenous in the state.
Full species profile
