Mississippi’s 358 fox squirrel records trace an unusual shape for a tree squirrel: the heaviest county count, 85, sits in Jackson County on the coast, with 35 more in neighboring Hancock, while inland reports scatter through Delta counties like Sharkey and hill counties like Lafayette.
The big squirrel of open woods
The fox squirrel is the largest tree squirrel in North America, close to twice the bulk of a gray squirrel, and it likes room to move. Where grays keep to closed hardwood canopy, fox squirrels favor open pine woods, scattered mature trees, and broad park-like edges, traveling on the ground in long, unhurried bounds. Mississippi’s fire-shaped pine country fits them well. De Soto National Forest and Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge hold the open-canopy pine savanna the species prefers, while Vicksburg National Military Park and the Natchez Trace Parkway add records from mature parkland and wooded edges.
Two rises in the year
Reports climb from March through May and again from October through December. Fox squirrels follow the same two-litter rhythm as gray squirrels, breeding in winter and again in late spring, and the autumn rise coincides with the pine seed and hardwood mast crop, when a fox squirrel spends long stretches on the ground cutting cones and caching nuts.
Status in Mississippi
The fox squirrel is native to Mississippi, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous in the state. It is not specifically listed under Mississippi’s state-level conservation framework, and the IUCN lists the species globally as Least Concern.
