• Scott the Eastern Gray Squirrel in Tootie’s Backyard.

Scott

the Eastern Gray Squirrel

Scott is an eastern gray squirrel who lives in Tootie’s backyard all year.

While most of Tootie and Yoshi’s friends are birds, Scott is a mammal. He is warm-blooded and has hair rather than feathers.

As an eastern gray squirrel, Scott is one of three species of squirrel that lives in Tootie’s backyard. Guy, the fox squirrel, and Bessie, the flying squirrel, also live there. Most of the squirrels in the area are related to Scott.

Like Guy, Scott has a fluffy tail. You can identify Scott and his relatives by their brown or gray fur and white belly.

Scott’s Home

Scott lives high in an oak tree in Tootie’s backyard. He lives in a nest that he built with the dead leaves that fell from the trees last autumn after Robbie stole his last home.

Unlike Tootie and Yoshi’s bird friends, Scott was born in a live birth, meaning he wasn’t hatched from an egg.

He was born with three siblings in a nest that his mom built using leaves and twigs. He was born without fur and with closed eyes. His mom fed him milk until his teeth came in three weeks later.

He left home when he was three months old to build his own nest. Six months later, at nine months old, Scott was an adult.

What types of nests do you see in your yard?

Scott’s Hobbies

Eastern gray squirrels are tree squirrels, and Scott hangs out in the trees in Tootie’s backyard and on the ground near the trees.

When Scott isn’t foraging for food or climbing trees, he likes to scurry along fences, power lines, and bury food.

Scott runs from other animals quickly or freezes on a tree in an attempt to camouflage. Sometimes he even throws things at Tootie, Yoshi, and their other friends from the trees.

When Scott is with his relatives in a group, they form a scurry or a dray. He learns about his relatives through his sense of smell, which tells him where they’ve been and how healthy they are. He also communicates with them by flicking his tail.

If he senses danger, he’ll call out to his friends and family, warning them of the threat.

Where do you see Scott in your yard?

Scott’s Diet

Many people think Scott is a vegetarian. However, Scott is an omnivore. While he likes to eat seeds, flowers, wheat, corn, and acorns, Scott also eats frogs, bugs, bird eggs.

During the autumn season, Scott buries caches of food in the ground so that he’ll have food when the trees are bare during the winter. Scott uses his excellent sense of smell to find the buried food when he needs it.

Scott buries more food than he eats, and trees and other plants grow from the seeds he leaves buried. Like Biv, Scott helps spread forests and plant life.

What other animals do you know of that bury food for the winter?

Learn more about Scott.

Activities

Crosswords


1. Type of animal Scott is.
2. Warm blooded animal with hair.
3. Animal who eats fruits, vegetables, and meat.
4. When Scott buries food.
5. Animals that steal squirrel nests.
6. Buried collection of food.
7. What Scott's mom fed him when he was a baby.
8. Group of eastern gray squirrels.
9. Color of Scott's belly.
10. Material Scott used to make his nest.