No mammal in Georgia’s atlas is recorded more often than the eastern gray squirrel, 7,682 records spread across 132 counties. Fulton County alone accounts for more than 1,600 of them, but the species turns up from the ridges of Chattahoochee National Forest to the live oaks of Jekyll Island and Cumberland Island National Seashore.
Made for mast and canopy
Gray squirrels live on tree seeds, acorns, hickory nuts, and beechnuts above all, and they bury thousands of them each fall in scattered single-nut caches. Many are recovered by smell months later, while the forgotten ones germinate, which makes the squirrel a quiet planter of the same hardwoods that feed it. Georgia’s mix of mature bottomland forest, mountain coves, and tree-lined neighborhoods suits it everywhere, and records from the State Botanical Gardens of Georgia to Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area show it thriving wherever the canopy connects.
Spring chases and autumn caching
Reports crest sharply in April, when courtship chases and the year’s first litters keep squirrels in motion all day, then build again toward October as caching intensifies ahead of winter. Gray squirrels do not hibernate. Through Georgia’s cold months they ride out storms in leaf nests and tree cavities, emerging on mild days to dig up what they buried.
Status in Georgia
NatureServe ranks the eastern gray squirrel S5, Secure, in Georgia, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
