Hello fellow nature lovers,

As some of you may know, the beloved squirrel that people often saw outside the Fays was recently run over 🙁 So I have decided to dedicate this post to a memorial of the life of that squirrel.

I believe I first encountered this squirrel outside the lawn of Dartmouth hall, sniffing around for a place to cache his nut. I was intrigued by him because of his uniquely long tail – it wasn’t bushy like other squirrels’ tails I had seen, it was more wiry and skinny. The squirrel still had the characteristic white stripe around its tail, and I never questioned if it was a grey squirrel – just why the tail was a different shape and length than usual. The squirrel was displaying typical caching behavior, and I believe he was looking for a place to cache his acorn. He eventually decided on a tree over by Thorton Hall, a good shady spot but not so smart with regards to pilferage avoidance.

first sighting

I started seeing this squirrel around more, and a couple of my next observations centered around him as well. I again saw him caching outside of Dartmouth Hall (re: my last post). Here is a photo from that sighting.

squirrel eating acorn

This time, the squirrel cached his acorn closer to Dartmouth Hall. As I’m thinking about it now, that might be an effective place to put an acorn as there’s typically a lot of foot traffic there and many squirrels might not think to dig around that area.

Another time I encountered this squirrel it was jumping across the lawn of Dartmouth Hall, very frantically. His characteristic long tail was moving all about as he sniffed the ground and patted some dirt. I wondered whether he was foraging or caching, but then saw him pause and start chewing on an acorn, as shown in the picture below.

squirrel eating another acorn

Sadly, I didn’t see the squirrel too much after this sighting, but I will always remember him by his uniquely long tail. Does anyone else have any photos or interesting stories about this squirrel? Comment below!

Best,

Sami

Hi avid nature lovers!

As I was on my way to brunch with my parents this past weekend, I spotted this squirrel out of the corner of my eye. Despite my mother’s complaints, I started filming as the squirrel was literally eating an acorn and it was too exciting to pass up! You can find more footage on @big_green_squirrels (shameless Instagram plug).

This squirrel has the typical dark grey coloring and lighter grey tail that I’ve seen in the squirrels around Dartmouth. However, its tail was longer and skinner than most squirrels around. Also, its underbelly is white, which is something I had never noticed before.

squirrel with an acorn in its mouth!

The squirrel was hopping around, with the acorn in his mouth, and then stood up and stared directly at me (as seen in the photograph above). He appeared to be anxious, but then turned away and started chomping on the acorn. He rolled the acorn around in his hands as he was eating it, almost as if he was shaving off parts of it. Then suddenly, the squirrel began to bury the acorn in the dirt around the tree trunk. His whole body was involved in the digging. But, as abruptly as he began the burial, it ended. The squirrel started jumping down the side of the hill, and came extremely close to me, which I was surprised by. I wonder if the Dartmouth squirrels are more accustomed to people than squirrels in the wild.

In the end, this whole squirrel activity prompted me to wonder what the squirrel’s tactics are with burying acorns, and if they ever end up eating the whole thing.

What do you think? Have you seen any squirrel activity around campus?

Best,

Sami