The squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is 18 to 24 centimeters tall and 250 to 350 grams of weight. He can raise the hairs on his bushy tail, which is 14 to 20 centimeters long, upright. In the wild, it can become 7 years.
It is an omnivore, a rodent that eats mostly plant material as nuts and seeds of spruce and pine. But also buds, mushrooms, bark, insects, eggs and even young birds they like. Nuts he knelts between the two front legs and his upper incisors. Then, he breaks the shell due to its lower incisors by using them as a kind of lever. Of cones the squirrel bites off the scales to reach the seeds. Loose scales and cores of cones under the trees betray its presence.
The four toes on the front feet and five toes on the hind feet have sharp, long, curved claws with which he can easily climb trees and jump from branch to branch. When jumping, he spreads his limbs. The loose skin on the sides helps to keep the animal airborne. The bushy tail serves as a rudder. He can swim well.
Their preference is for older forest with lots of food and tall trees. I have the impression that they also feel more at ease the last few years and come closer to residential home. (Whether there are now too many squirrels?)
The squirrel has several nests around thirty centimeters diameter, at least six meters high.
He is a day animal, and especially to see in the morning.
The squirrel does not hibernate, but remains hidden in inclement days in his nest.
Like many other rodents, squirrels lay winter stocks, that can be found with his nose and he will be looking up in the morning of better days. If you follow him, so you can find nuts.
After a gestation period of approximately 38 days gets the female, which alone cares for the kids annually between March and May, three or four young. Older females produce by the end of the reproductive period in August, a second litter.
In England, the squirrel is also called tree rat. He is regularly on the menu, even in restaurants in London.
You can in existing recipes replace hare or rabbit by three squirrels.
Smoked squirrel (Eastern Europe) is filled with dough crumbs, legumes and vodka, salt and spices like pepper and cumin.
There used to be hunted squirrels here by rascals with slingshots.
Or to chase the animal by group. After a while, the squirrel was tired and then came out of the tree to seek shelter and to hide. A brought pot or kettle was then thrown on the ground. The squirrel crawled into it. With a bag the opening was then held close. (Because they have viciously sharp teeth!)
You can also catch them with a wild trap with nuts, or a branch as a stair set close edgeways against a tree, with some 8 loops of straps fastened there.
In the lowlands, it is a protected species since 1994.