The first backyard squirrel I friended has been gone for over a week!

[acorm]

The last photo I have of Acorn, taken on 5/14. How old does he look here?

I have about half a dozen squirrels that are familiar with me. I put up a bird feeder in December and it immediately drew them out. One of the earliest squirrel scavengers was Acorn. He was easy to identify, because he was so small. About a week ago, May 15, he stopped showing up. A couple of them don’t come everyday, but a week is the longest I’ve not seen him. I thought maybe he matured and changed personalities, and maybe since he’s bigger, I can’t tell him apart. There were 6 that come get almonds from me and another 6+ that just want to scavenge. I feel like I would know if it was Acorn, because I’ve been watching them for months. He’s spunky, silly, and energetic, while the others seem more calm or serious.

In the past couple of months (since December) I’ve seen the neighbors cat in my yard like 4 times. There are also more crows. Other than that I’ve only seen an opossum 3 times. No other predators and hardly any cars out these days. I live in the suburbs on the west coast.

The squirrels only come early mornings usually between 6 and 9 am now, while before spring they would be here all day. Maybe all those new shelter in place gardens are luring them away. I think it’s odd that only Acorn that hasn’t come by. Is he too young to have relocated?




Acorn on March 27th. Any idea how old he looks? He was very small in March. At the bottom is one of those plastic red cups people played beer pong with.

The dish has bird seeds in it (mostly sunflower with the dried corn). Maybe he will return when food is scarce again? I've heard that males travel more, but I'm not sure he's old enough to sow his wild oats. I don't mind waiting. I just hope he is ok. Stay well, Acorn!

[Mel1959]

Size is not always a good indicator of age. Some squirrels are just smaller. Acorn does not look like a juvenile in either picture. One of the male squirrels I released last summer was involved in a mating chase just yesterday. So even younger males get caught up in that game. Hopefully this is what is going on with acorn and he’ll show up again after mating season.

[island rehabber]

Size is not always a good indicator of age. Some squirrels are just smaller. Acorn does not look like a juvenile in either picture. One of the male squirrels I released last summer was involved in a mating chase just yesterday. So even younger males get caught up in that game. Hopefully this is what is going on with acorn and he’ll show up again after mating season.

I agree with Mel -- although he is small he does not have a "baby look" in his eye. Young ones often have a softer, deer in the headlights kind of expression. We have had so many stories here on TSB about yard squirrels disappearing, their humans mourning, and then they show up again! Don't give up on acorn yet.

[olorin19]

Acorn does not look like a juvenile to me either.

This is Mookie. I had him before he opened his eyes on 10/18/17, so I can "age" him quite accurately to a DOB of about 9/13/17. This photo is 4/1/18, so he is about 6.5 months old. How does his age look compared to Acorn?

[acorm]

Thank you all so much. I am so new to this and I was instantly captivated. SO many mysteries about these little guys. I wish I could follow em for a day.

Regarding Age

It took me a month before I could photograph/video him, and I think I feel he is small because I saw him get bigger and bigger. He was tiny in Feb.

Here he is in March:



And that photo (in the original post) is the most recent one. He's standing by a 2x4.

I would guess from the photo of Mookie, I would guess that Acorn was about 3 months old in March? Making him 5 months in May?

SEXUAL MATURITY

Not only did Acorn seem youthful, but many of the male squirrels seem more sexually developed. The assumption would be that he's not gone through puberty yet, because he didn't look as sexually mature down there. I read that sexual maturity is at 10 months. Is that true?

AGE OF DISPERSAL

I read that males do often leave their birth sites, but different places said different ages. It sounds like male squirrels leave the nest around 2 months, but I'd assume they still see their moms. Then I read that they don't leave until they are sexually mature (at 10 months). Then I read that they don't leave until they are fully developed at 2 years.

I'm wondering if Acorn has already left his neighborhood of birth or he followed his mom to my nut house. Would he be too young to leave his familiar territory at 5 months?

HANGING OUT WITH MOM

He seemed to follow around a bigger female grey, and they seemed so familiar. I thought she was his mom. She's amazing, I named her Almond. I did see Almond and Acorn spar for food once, but usually they can be eating quite close to one another. Now that I think of it, he did disappear for a day or two after that morning scuffle a while back. Do they follow their moms?

LOTS OF NEW SQUIRRELS SINCE ACORN'S BEEN MISSING

There are so many new squirrels since Acorn's been gone. Maybe about 4-6 squirrels that had never come by before. I guess it could be that he felt it too crowded. Then again, I might have gained someone else's backyard squirrel, and maybe the switched places. Would that be a reason to go?

CONCLUSIONS

He was also one of my early 5 squirrels. The smallest of the crew, so I definitely think he has an adventurous spirit. He was the first squirrel that let me get up close (the bigger ones wouldn't let him eat, so he was the most unbothered when I was there to intimidate the bigger squirrels). He was always very alert and fast. The biggest worry would be that he spazzes out on the road, but he usually uses the backyard fences and electrical cables to get around.

Acorn was always very playful and felt safe in my backyard. He was very alert to predators (mostly crows). I saw the crows dive after him for food most often (usually after he took a nut from me). I'd say he's cautiously adventurous. On one hand, he is a little bit of a spaz, which could get him in trouble, but I can also imagine his courage taking him somewhere else interesting.

My gut feels is that, come winter, he will remember these extra snacks from my yard. In the meantime, he will explore the world

Acorn was the first friend from my backyard. It's nice to know that I'm not alone in missing a special friend.

[olorin19]

Two comments:

If you are feeding many squirrels, it helps to spread the food out. This makes it much easier for more squirrels to eat at the same time. If I feed sunflower seeds, I throw out handfuls so that each handful is spread out. I do this over an area of my yard maybe 30' on a side. If the seeds are all together, the dominant squirrels get all the food.

When a new and aggressive squirrel enters the picture, this can definitely cause smaller and/or meeker squirrels to go elsewhere. But if you spread out the food, even the most aggressive squirrel might be more interested in eating than chasing another squirrel 20' away.

[olorin19]

For age reference, here is Mookie at exactly 12 weeks old -

[acorm]

Thanks for all your knowledge, everyone!

Thank you, especially, Olorin, for sharing your Mookie along with the age

I learned that I might have been using juvenile wrong. It turns out that I meant adolescent squirrel, for which I think Acorn was on the older side. Probably the last time I saw him, he was a young adult. Here's the link.

My guess now is that he had just left the nest when I met him in Feb, and it took him a couple months to decide it was time to disperse. Mookie definitely looks like Acorn, when I first saw him! Do you think 6 months is too young to disperse?

Here is a video of Acorn from April.

I love his ears and expressivity.

For age reference, here is Mookie at exactly 12 weeks old -