Maryland’s 365 fox squirrel records lean hard toward the Eastern Shore. Dorchester County alone holds 208, and the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park, set in that county’s marsh and timber country, accounts for 163 of them, with smaller numbers scattered through Garrett, Frederick, and the western counties.
A big squirrel of open, mature woods
Fox squirrels are noticeably larger and longer-limbed than gray squirrels, spend more of their time feeding on the ground, and favor open, parklike stands of mature pine and oak with little underbrush. Maryland’s Eastern Shore animals belong to the Delmarva fox squirrel, a silvery subspecies found only on the Delmarva Peninsula, once federally endangered and recovered enough to be removed from the endangered species list in 2015.
Best seen when the leaves come down
Counts run in every month but more than triple in October, when leaf fall opens the woods and squirrels are on the ground working through fallen mast. Fox squirrels do not hibernate. They ride out cold snaps in tree cavities or leaf nests and get back to foraging as soon as the weather eases.
Status in Maryland
NatureServe ranks the fox squirrel S4, Apparently Secure, in Maryland, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
