American Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus)

This rodent is also known as pine squirrel. It belong to he Squirrel family and is one of the three species of tree squirrels (as opposed to flying squirrels) in its genus.

It is active during the day (diurnal) living mainly in the coniferous forests of Canada, Alaska, the Rocky Mountains and the Northeastern regions of the USA. Because they feed primarily on coniferous seeds they are also called pine squirrels, leading them to spend much time on the ground gathering.

American Red Squirrels live on their own except when mating. They have exclusive territories, which are about 50m (165ft) in diameter.  Sometimes females bequeath parts of territory to their young, which in any case settle usual within 150m (500ft) of their natal territory. The gestation period is 31 – 35 days. The litters are 1-5 in size, the large majority 3-4, the newborns only weighing 10g (less than a third of an ounce). They will be nursed for about ten weeks but start moving outside of their nests after about six weeks. It will be fully grown after less than 20 weeks.