Eastern Grey Squirrel (Suburban Animals of Silicon Valley)

Eastern Grey Squirrel

Sciurus carolinensis

Notes ⁴

These come in either regular grey & brown or in all-black. The black ones are often more prevalent around certain locations, like the Stanford campus or Cuesta Park in Mountain View. These are the familiar squirrels that climb trees, rob gardens and birdfeeders, beg for scraps in parks, and chew on your property.

This species was introduced from the eastern half of the US and looks quite similar to the native Western Grey Squirrel, but with a few differences:

1) Eastern Greys are bolder and will happily live near (or in) human buildings in urban or suburban areas. Western Greys stick to the woods in the foothills and mountains.

2) Western Greys have a lankier build, with longer legs and tails, and tend to move a little more awkwardly. Westerns have zero or very little brown in their fur, whereas Easterns have lots of brown, particularly on their faces and tails.

3) Eastern Greys scold with the "chuk-chuk-chuk-chweeeeeo!" sound that will be familiar to anybody from east of Colorado. Westerns have a weird, almost chuckling call.

Eastern Grey Squirrels also look similar to the Fox Squirrel, another species introduced from the eastern US. Differences between these two:

1) Fox Squirrels are usually larger, with a noticeably stockier build and a fatter, fluffier appearance.

2) Fox Squirrels have pumpkin-orange undersides and lots of orange on their faces and tails. Eastern Grey Squirrels have snowy-white bellies, and their face & tail color is more brown than orange and not as extensive. Fox Squirrels' orange can get faded to quite pale orange, but not all the way to white.

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BioDiversity4All Mapa

Color	brown, grey, white
Status	introduced

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