Minnesota’s gray squirrel records concentrate in the hardwood-rich south and east, including the Mississippi National River corridor, while North Shore towns provide pockets of mature deciduous trees within a largely coniferous region. Chippewa National Forest records mark the species’ reach into the state’s northern forest transition.
Fall is the big caching season, when a squirrel buries thousands of acorns, walnuts, and other nuts one at a time across its territory and relies on sharp spatial memory to find them again through winter. It builds leaf nests high in tree forks or dens in a hollow trunk when one is available, and in Minnesota’s coldest stretches several squirrels may share one cavity to conserve heat.
Records peak twice, in April and again in October, matching the squirrel’s two breeding pulses and its heaviest fall foraging as nuts ripen and get buried for winter. Both peaks mark when squirrels are moving and feeding most visibly, not a jump in how many live in the area.
Full species profile
