Kansas belongs to the fox squirrel. With 1,643 records across 92 counties, it is one of the most recorded mammals in the state, and its map reaches far beyond the hardwood belt, from Sedgwick and Douglas counties out through Riley and deep into Ellis County on the central plains. Where the gray squirrel stops at the edge of the big timber, the fox squirrel keeps going.
The squirrel of open timber
The largest tree squirrel in North America, the fox squirrel prefers open oak and hickory woods, farm groves, shelterbelts, and the cottonwood-lined creeks that thread the plains. It spends far more time on the ground than the gray squirrel, traveling between scattered trees on foot, which suits it to a state where woodland comes in strips and patches. Konza Prairie Biological Station, Clinton Wildlife Area, and Scott and El Dorado state parks all hold records along those wooded seams, and mature town parks do just as well.
Busy in every season
Kansas reports come in all twelve months with little dip anywhere. Autumn brings the busiest stretch, when squirrels cut acorns and walnuts and bury them singly across their home ground, while the April and May rise reflects spring activity and the first young out of the leaf nest. Through winter it stays abroad on all but the harshest days, working its caches under a bare canopy.
Status in Kansas
NatureServe ranks the fox squirrel S5, Secure, in Kansas, and the species is native to its Kansas range. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
