Married Squirrels
Watching a squirrel couple for ten years
The couple
I had grown increasingly interested in watching nature in my yard, even before I started actually rewilding. Squirrels were always of interest. There were generally two in the back and one in the front. The two in the back were always together.
[Picture: backyard male squirrel cooling off on a tree root]
At first, of course, they were just anonymous squirrels to me, but after watching them over the course of several years, it became apparent that they were a couple. They would get rambunctious in the spring, one chasing the other round and round the trunks of trees. Then when they stopped, they would face each other and hug. I mean a real arms around the other bear hug. Then the male would get behind the female and they would mate. The same two squirrels, year after year.
There were reasons
I realize this flies in the face of recognized squirrel behavior, but there were mitigating circumstances. For one, the mating never produced offspring. The female would make elaborate nests, scavenging cardboard and leaves, but the male was probably sterile. Without babies, the female had no need to retreat into isolation, guard a nest against a male, or manage demanding kids. With no young to feed, she never needed to drive the male away from her food reserves.
The second was an ongoing battle between the male in the back and the squirrel in the front. This constant conflict made the backyard male very territorial, which protected the female from other suitors. He was provoked by the squirrel in the front, who was a thief. At times when the couple was elsewhere, the front squirrel would rummage through the backyard, digging up their buried nuts. Apparently this did not go unnoticed.
The final dance
Then one year, things changed. Instead of the couple doing their little spring dance, there were six or seven squirrels following the female around. A little while later, she was gone, the male squirrel now alone in the back. Most likely she finally conceived, and her aged body could not survive the rigors of pregnancy and birth.
The pattern seemed about to repeat itself. After the male was alone in the back, a young female entered the picture. She would flirt with him. Then she would flirt with the front squirrel, but he never seemed very interested. Finally the back squirrel warmed up to her, and they started spending time together. Unfortunately, not too long after that, the next door neighbors put out rodent poison. The back squirrel was in the habit of raiding their yard and must have eaten some. I found his body by the back fence, not a mark on him, stone cold dead.
The young female made some attempts with the front squirrel, and he responded at times, but they never became the kind of couple that was always together. It was quite a revelation to watch that backyard couple's relationship go through so many years. A rarity in the squirrel world.
