Wisconsin’s 332 fox squirrel records draw a clear line across the state. They belong to the southern half: Dodge and Grant counties lead, with Dane, Columbia, and Sauk close behind, in the open farm and oak country, while the forested north contributes almost nothing.
A squirrel of the open woods
The fox squirrel is the largest tree squirrel in North America, and it lives differently from its gray cousin. It favors open oak and hickory woods, savanna edges, and scattered trees in farm country, and it spends more of its day on the ground, loping between widely spaced trunks rather than traveling the canopy. Wisconsin’s record matches that taste. Horicon Wildlife Area and High Cliff State Park anchor the sightings, and the strong showing from Grant and Dodge counties maps onto the driftless region’s oak openings and pasture woodlots. Where continuous hardwood canopy closes in, the fox squirrel gives way to the grays.
On the ground in every season
Fox squirrels do not hibernate, and Wisconsin records appear in every month. Counts run strongest in April and May and again from September through November, when hickory nuts and acorns pull the animals onto open ground to feed and bury caches in plain sight. The brief midsummer dip fits a season when dense foliage and abundant food keep them quiet and high.
Status in Wisconsin
NatureServe ranks the fox squirrel S4, Apparently Secure, in Wisconsin, and the species is native to the state’s southern range. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
