Fox squirrels are the second most recorded mammal in Oklahoma’s atlas, 2898 records from 67 counties, and the map matches the species’ reputation. Tulsa, Oklahoma, Cleveland, and Payne counties account for most of the total, but records reach from Lake Murray State Resort Park in the south to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in the north.
The prairie state’s tree squirrel
The fox squirrel is the largest tree squirrel in North America, and it is more at home than the gray squirrel in open, broken woodland. Prairie groves, shelterbelts, streamside corridors, pecan orchards, and big-lawned neighborhoods all suit it, which is why it thrives across Oklahoma’s whole width rather than hugging the forested east. Its long tail and rusty underparts separate it from the grayer, canopy-hugging eastern gray squirrel where the two overlap, and it spends far more of its day foraging on the ground, sometimes ranging far from the nearest tree.
Busy in every season
Oklahoma’s records run strong in every month and crest in April, when late-winter litters are weaning and squirrels dig into both buried nut caches and the first green growth. A second breeding period in summer keeps activity high, and fox squirrels never hibernate, riding out cold snaps in leaf nests or tree cavities between feeding bouts.
Status in Oklahoma
NatureServe carries the fox squirrel as SNR, unranked at the state level, while the species remains secure across its global range. It is native throughout Oklahoma, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous.
