Squirrel Hunting: A Tough Nut to Crack

One of the biggest reasons I took up squirrel hunting is the fact that squirrels are probably the most accessible wild-game species where I live. Here in the Champlain Valley of Vermont, we’re blessed with an abundance of oak-hickory-maple hardwood forests that make up a large portion of the patchwork landscape that includes agricultural fields and suburban developments. Gray squirrels are found in good numbers in most of these woodlots, providing hunters no shortage of opportunities to chase them.

What I’ve learned about squirrel hunting has come from simply spending as much time as I can in the squirrel woods. I’ve learned how to find them and hunt them, and I’ve improved my success little by little over the years. Experience is my primary guide, and I use all of this acquired knowledge to determine where and how I’ll hunt. I put questions and observations to the test and tweak them as I go along, but sometimes, what brought me success one day seems to go out the window the next day.

I hunted hard the last few days of last season, and on closing day I was left with a few unanswered questions. I wanted to know more about how and why squirrels move around in response to their environment. In particular, I had found there to be a good crop of acorns and hickory nuts, and I found several squirrels in those stands. I also shot a few out of pine groves where I stumbled upon several heaping piles of pine-cone debris. I wondered what it all meant. In addition to this food for thought, we had one of the wettest summers on record last year, with major flooding throughout. It got me thinking about how to catalogue my observations and what I might expect to encounter this coming season.

If you spend enough time chasing squirrels, you’ve probably generated your own list of anecdotes and pseudo-scientific observations to explain your experiences in the woods. After all, we need some information to point us in a direction, otherwise we’re wandering aimlessly and hunting by pure happenstance. My curiosity got the better of me at the end of last season, so I set out to get some of these questions answered from someone smarter than me when it comes to understanding squirrels.

SQUIRREL SCIENCE

Cody Rhoden is the small-game program coordinator with the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources. He’s an avid hunter and has spent plenty of time in the woods chasing fox squirrels and gray squirrels. He brings a unique perspective to the conversation, being a trained wildlife manager as well as a small game hunting aficionado. We compared notes and ran through a series of questions to better understand the life cycle, ecology and behaviors of our beloved bushytail, and just what it is that makes them move around the woods.

I first posed the question if squirrels migrate, and Rhoden mentioned that although squirrels don’t travel across the continent in mass numbers like waterfowl, there may have been periods in recorded history when movements of large numbers of squirrels did occur. He mentioned how during the time of European settlement and westward expansion, many individuals were naturalists and kept good records of their observations on wildlife, much like hunters do today.

“In the 1800s and into the turn of the century, there was a lot of high-impact logging and clear cutting throughout the East, especially in the Ohio River Valley,” says Rhoden. “If you couple that with a large-scale weak mast year, it’s possible that thousands of squirrels in that region had no other choice but to move. And if that coincides with a period of clear cutting and poor forest management practices, they would have had to keep moving and keep moving. You can imagine it wouldn’t take long to get thousands of squirrels swimming across the Ohio River.”

Rhoden feels there is no doubt that at different points in time, these localized squirrel migrations did happen in the eastern United States. Of course, nowadays we are a far cry from the unforgiving forestry practices of the pioneer days, so widespread squirrel migrations are probably not happening. We know squirrels do move, but on a much smaller scale. Rhoden detailed how individual animals move about their home range for a variety of reasons, and offered a few insights for squirrel hunters trying to crack those tough nuts.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

He first explained how squirrels have a home range of anywhere from an acre to 160 acres. Depending on the forest cover and resource availability, their range may vary, but with good habitat conditions, 3 to 4 acres generally offer a squirrel everything it needs to live.

Next, Rhoden mentioned that squirrels mainly make resource-based movements within their range, with food resources being their primary motivator. He added that squirrels don’t follow a strict diet, but as herbivores—or perhaps more fittingly, granivores—they eat mostly seeds and nuts, epsecially acorns, hickory nuts, beechnuts and walnuts. In late winter and early spring, they’ll eat buds and new woody growth. They also eat mushrooms, insects and even meat every now and then. This past year I also discovered how much the grays and reds in my area have an affinity for pine seeds, having found piles of pine-cone waste in the areas I hunt. If you have pine groves or mixed hardwoods and softwoods, it’s likely you’ll find squirrels in these areas, too.

But finding squirrels is not always as easy as simply finding mast-producing trees. Rather, actual mast production has more of an influence on squirrel movement. Rhoden is quick to point out how sightings of squirrels by hunters has an inverse relationship to the abundance of mast—more mast means less squirrel movement. This is because when mast production is high, squirrels have abundant access and surplus food caches stored without a need to leave the tree for too long to move around, leading hunters to think they’ve moved out of the area. This has to do with a phenomenon called “synchronous masting.”

“Research has shown that many trees in an area will synchronously put on higher or lower levels of mast,” says Rhoden. “Think of it like a bumper crop of acorns. A tree or a group of trees in an area will put on a bunch of mast for a few years and then less mast, and in some years very little mast.” 

He describes this arboreal activity as a “nut predator” avoidance tactic trees utilize to allow for more of their seeds to germinate.

“These long-lived tree species can go a few years without producing higher levels of mast to thin out nut predator populations,” he says.

Rhoden then offered the flip side of this relationship by pointing out that the main detriment to squirrels is a lack of food resources.

“Trees will drop their mast production down, and squirrels either move out of the area or succumb to malnourishment, disease or predation,” he says. “Then, the next couple of years, the trees will put on a bunch of mast and they’re able to make it through the nut predators again.”

These cycles likely have something to do with hunters seeing squirrel numbers bounce around from year to year.

Another component of squirrel ecology to help explain our observations is the squirrel breeding cycle. Rhoden mentioned there are two breeding seasons each year, one in winter and one in summer. The time leading up to each breeding season can see a lot of chasing and interactions between squirrels. After mating, mothers will raise their young (commonly two to four per litter) for about 12 weeks until they are ready to survive on their own. 

Feeding and breeding aside, Rhoden addressed a few additional considerations for squirrel hunters to think about. First, predation is not a major driver of squirrel movement. Of course, some animals do fall victim to hawks and owls and ground-dwelling predators, but never enough to create a mass exodus.

Squirrels are not territorial like other animals, either. Males don’t roam about to claim their turf or to protect their breeding rights. Squirrels are generally solitary but will interact a bit with other squirrels when competing for food or chasing a female to breed. Diseases and die-offs do occur, but they tend to stay very localized and may not affect the greater population in an area. Another point to remember is that squirrels do not go into deep hibernation. They will stay in their dens and nests during cold times and go into “torpor,” a state of decreased activity and metabolism to conserve energy, but on clear winter days they will venture out to sun themselves and find food.

SQUIRREL SCHOOL IN SESSION

The best way to get to know your woods better and understand how squirrels are responding is to spend time out there, and this extends well beyond the hunting season. All year long there are opportunities to check on the status of mast production, monitor the weather and climate conditions, observe squirrels during and after their mating season, follow the dispersal of young and study their daily movement patterns. Understanding where, when and how they are moving within their habitat can prove beneficial once the season opens. Equipped with this new insight, I’ve enjoyed getting back into the woodlands with a fresh perspective and a new agenda during this off-season period to learn more about the food, habitat and habits of the squirrels in my area.

Checking in with your state wildlife agency and forestry division can also provide useful information to corroborate your observations. Many states conduct mast surveys and issue reports on wildlife population management and forest management plans. Contact your local small game project leader or small mammal biologist to learn more about squirrel ecology and forest management in your area.

Hopefully this gives you a little more information to chew on as you make your way toward squirrel season. Instead of simply scratching your head and writing off your observations to anyone’s guess, this info should arm you with more intellect and a better ability to make sense of what you’re seeing in the woods throughout the year, year after year. That being said, even if it’s not harvest season, it seems that “squirrel season” can take on a whole new meaning and extend what was once a fall foray into a year-round chance to interact with one of America’s most underrated and iconic small-game species.

ESSENTIAL CALLS

Four proven ways to lure in bushytails

Haydel’s Game Calls DS-85 Squirrel Call

This budget-friendly 3-in-1 call is constructed to imitate excited barks and chatter, a gray squirrel cry and the high-pitched whines of a baby squirrel in distress. It’s primed to do it all and can be easily operated with one hand to produce realistic sounds that are sure to put more squirrels in the bag. $19; haydels.com

Hunters Specialties Squirrel Call

This effective and easy-to-use call will bark and chatter with the best of them, or whine and cry to create alarm and distress calls to play to a squirrel’s paternal instincts. Simply shake the bellows or tap it against your hand or leg to bark and chatter, or blow into it for the distress cries. Made for all-weather use, there is a port on the side of the barrel to change call pitch. $13; hunterspec.com

Haydel’s Game Calls Mr. Squirrel Whistle

When all else fails, dig out the trusty squirrel whistle. This call imitates the sounds of a baby squirrel that’s injured or in distress. It’s the perfect trick when you’re in a highly productive area but can’t seem to get anything to move. Inhale a few short, sharp breaths through the hole in the disk, then sit back to watch and listen. Nearby squirrels are sure to start barking and flicking their tails, giving away their locations. $15; haydels.com

Two Quarters

No squirrel hunter should be in the woods without a pair of quarters in his or her pocket. This old-school tactic is simple but highly effective at mimicking the sound of a squirrel working a tough nut. This heavy-metal action is highly versatile, too; rub the two faces together, grind the rigged edges across each other and tap one against the other to produce a variety of sounds that entice a squirrel to interact. $.50; junk drawer, under your truck seat, etc.

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• This article was featured in the August 2024 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe.

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