Minnesota’s 320 fox squirrel records hug the southern half of the state, from the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area through Dakota, Hennepin, Rice, and Goodhue counties and out to Pipestone National Monument in the southwest. Minnesota is the northwestern corner of this squirrel’s range, and the map shows it.
A squirrel of open timber and river bottoms
The fox squirrel is the largest tree squirrel in North America, and it favors exactly the habitat that lets a big squirrel move: open oak woods, farm groves, town parks, and river-bottom hardwoods with spaced trees and a thin understory. That preference keeps it out of the dense northern conifer forest and concentrated along Minnesota’s river corridors and bluff country, including the hardwood slopes around Whitewater State Park.
No winter break for a cacher
Fox squirrels do not hibernate. They bury acorns and other nuts one at a time through fall, then live off those caches and tree buds through winter, often sheltering in a leaf nest called a drey. Records stay level all year, strongest in March and May as breeding chases get underway, with another lift in September and October when caching is in full swing.
Status in Minnesota
NatureServe lists the fox squirrel SNR, Unranked, in Minnesota and G5, Secure, globally. The species is native to the state, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
