Only the white-tailed deer out-records the eastern gray squirrel in Virginia: 19,085 records, spread across 118 counties and led by Fairfax, Hampton, and Arlington. From the coastal woods of First Landing State Park to the ridges of Shenandoah National Park, this is the squirrel of Virginia’s hardwoods.
A mast eater in an oak and hickory state
Gray squirrels run on tree seed: acorns, hickory nuts, walnuts, and beechnuts, much of it buried one nut at a time in fall and relocated by smell through winter. Virginia’s oak and hickory canopy, from Jefferson National Forest in the mountains to the riverside hardwoods of the George Washington Memorial Parkway and the mature woods of Manassas National Battlefield Park, is exactly the forest this species evolved in. Leaf nests tucked into branch forks serve year-round, with tree cavities preferred for raising young.
Two climbs in the squirrel year
The monthly record rises to a sharp April crest, sags to its lowest point in August, then climbs again to a second high in October. That double arc fits the species’ calendar. Gray squirrels breed in midwinter and again in early summer, so spring brings chases and traveling juveniles, while October is peak caching season, when squirrels work the ground under the falling mast in plain sight. Midsummer heat, by contrast, keeps them loafing in shade with food easy to reach overhead.
Status in Virginia
NatureServe ranks the eastern gray squirrel S5, Secure, in Virginia, and the species is native to the state, unlike in parts of the West where it has been introduced. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
