Fox Squirrel on Bur Oak Tree
by Janette Boyd
Title
Fox Squirrel on Bur Oak Tree
Artist
Janette Boyd
Medium
Photograph - Photo
Description
Photo of a Fox Squirrel eating an acorn on an old Bur Oak Tree. This was taken in a common green area behind my house.
Featured by the following FAA Groups:
*Wisconsin Flowers and Scenery
*Out of the Ordinary
*Our Four Legged Friends
*Beauty
*Artists Best Five Artwork
*Images That Excite You
*Weekly Fun for All
Thank you to all the FAA Group Administrators who have featured my artwork.
The fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) is a member of the order Rodentia and family Sciuridae. The fox squirrel utilizes a large variety of habitat types. It can survive in areas of only a few trees or in heavily timbered regions. Fox squirrels seem to prefer areas with a relatively open understory. For this reason, they can often be found in wooded farm lots, park-like woods, and along fence rows. Fox squirrels are most abundant in prairie-oak hickory forest transition zones. Prescribed burning, annual floods in bottomlands and light grazing help to modify understory habitat features in favor of the fox squirrel.
In Oklahoma, there are no records of fox squirrels existing in the panhandle, however, they exist extensively throughout the rest of Oklahoma. The fox squirrel resides in hardwood forests, dense timber along streams, open pecan orchards, bottomland forests, post oak-blackjack oak forests, and upland oak-hickory forests. The fox squirrel is located along all streams except along the Cimarron River in the extreme southwestern portion of the state.
In fall and winter, the major food source for both squirrel species is hard mast such as pecans, acorns, and hickory nuts. The mast produced by heavy-seeded tree species generally determine carrying capacity for squirrels in a given area. As a result, squirrel populations often fluctuate with changes in hard mast yields. In Oklahoma, hard mast trees often produce sporadically in a five- to seven-year cycle. During this cycle, there may be one excellent hard mast crop, one mast crop failure, and three to five years of poor to moderate mast production. Because of the periodic nature of mast crops, a variety of flora species must be present to provide alternate food sources and more stable habitat conditions. Important soft mast producing species include mulberry and blackberry. Maple, black gum, Osage orange, black cherry, and grape are also good food sources. Squirrels often ingest fruits, berries, bark, fungi, roots, bulbs, floral parts, and in some cases animal parts (insects, other invertebrates,
https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/hunting/Squirrels.pdf
Uploaded
January 18th, 2015
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Viewed 828 Times - Last Visitor from Oshkosh, WI on 03/26/2024 at 1:17 PM
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Comments (5)
Chrisann Ellis
Janette, Congrats!!! Your Outstanding Work has been Featured On The Home Page of Weekly Fun in All Mediums!!!
John Bailey
Congratulations on being featured in the Fine Art America Group "Images That Excite You!"