Squirrels have several strategies for surviving the winter, including:
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Storing food: Squirrels prepare for winter by storing acorns, nuts, berries, and tree bark in shallow holes near trees. They also create food caches by burying food in holes and under rocks and logs. Squirrels may create several thousand buried caches each season.
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Fattening up: Throughout fall, squirrels maximize food consumption and body mass to prepare for winter. In winter, when food is hard to come by, these reserves help the animals survive.
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Spending more time in dens: In the winter, squirrels spend less time foraging outside their dens, and it’s more common for several squirrels to share a den. This behavior allows more animals to take shelter and also to keep each other warm.
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Growing thicker fur: Squirrels grow a thicker fur coat for the winter that is often a different color from their summer coat to help them blend in with the snow. This new fur is much denser and provides another protective layer of insulation to keep the cold out.
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Shivering: One other tactic gray squirrels use to keep warm in winter is shivering.
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Creating dens: Tree-dwelling squirrels, like the red squirrel or the eastern grey, make dens in the trunks of trees or build nests in branches out of twigs and leaves. Ground squirrels use their paws to dig little caves in the ground to stay warm.
Squirrels do not hibernate during the winter, but instead rely on sheltered nests or dens in trees, fat reserves, and stored food to survive the long, cold winter.
