Information about squirrels

Chinese name: squirrel

English name: squirrel

Scientific name: squirrel,

Genus: Rodents, Squirrels, Squirrels, Squirrels.

Personality: gentle, lovely, clever, docile, likable and hardworking.

Features: long furry tail.

Distribution: The country of origin is northeast, northwest and Europe of China, and it is distributed all over the world except Oceania. Squirrels are widely distributed and can be seen throughout the cold temperate forest region. In China, it is mainly distributed in the mountainous areas of three northeastern provinces, northeastern Inner Mongolia, Hebei and northwestern Shanxi, Ningxia, Gansu, Xinjiang and other provinces; Foreign countries spread westward from the Russian Far East, Japan, North Korea, and northern Mongolia to Western Europe. In coniferous forest, squirrels are not abundant every year, and their number depends on the number of coniferous seeds in winter; Because its food is mainly plant seeds and fruits, seeds sometimes account for more than 90%; However, spruce seeds are not harvested every year. In the years when pinecones fail to harvest, squirrels will move to places with plenty of food for food. And in years when food is abundant, it will multiply in large numbers. There is a lot of reproduction.

(In addition, you can refer to the Chinese book of the first semester of the sixth grade of the nine-year compulsory education in Shanghai (applicable edition). The seventeenth lesson is the Chinese book Squirrel written by Buffon, and the second lesson of Unit 3, Grade 3, Beijing Normal University Edition. )

[Edit this paragraph] Morphological characteristics of squirrels

Usually medium-sized, it is a typical representative animal in cold temperate coniferous forest and mixed forest. Squirrels have five maxillary molars and four mandibular molars, and the number of molars varies. There are no skin wings between the front and rear limbs. The limbs are strong, the toes have pointed claws, the claw ends are hooked, and the weight is usually about 350 grams. Female individuals are slightly heavier than male individuals. Squirrels are dignified and light, with a body length of about 18-26 cm, and a long and thick tail, which is more than two-thirds of the body length, but less than the body length.

The tail hair is thick and fluffy, and the limbs and front and rear feet are long, but the forelimbs are shorter than the hind limbs. The ear shell is well developed, which can reach the eyes when folded forward, and there is a bunch of long black hair at the ear end in winter. The back of the whole body is brown-gray from the kissing end to the tail root, the sides and limbs of the body are brown-gray, the hair roots are gray-black, and the hair tips are brown or gray. The abdomen is white from the back of the lower collar to the tail root and the inside of the limbs. The back and ventral surface of the tail are brown-black, the hair roots are gray and the hair tips are brown-black. The snout, cheeks and lower protrusions are back color, but blue-gray, the ear shell is black-gray, and there is a large bunch of black tufts in winter. Individual coat colors vary greatly, such as cyan, gray, brownish gray, dark gray and dark brown. With the regional differences, the coat color also changes. For example, the coat color of Liaoning squirrels is gray, while the coat color of China southern squirrels is black. In addition, the coat color is also affected by the seasons. The coat color is gray or taupe in winter and black or dark brown in summer.

Very cute squirrel life habits Squirrels have very long ears and tail hair, which can adapt to life in trees; They hang upside down from the branches with claws and tails like long hooks. At dawn and evening, they also leave the trees and hunt on the ground. After finding abundant food in autumn, squirrels will not only use tree holes or dig holes in the ground to store fruits and other foods, but also block the holes with dirt or fallen leaves.

Squirrels are covered with red hair in summer, and in autumn they will be covered tightly with black and gray winter hair. The newborn squirrel, with no hair and unclear eyes, began to grow long hair 8 days after birth, opened its eyes 30 days later, and could eat hard fruit 45 days later, becoming very agile. Squirrels are very docile to their owners, so we should treat them gently, so that they will be dead set on you and will never hurt you with their teeth. Of course, they will gently chew your fingers with their teeth, tease you and feel itchy, which is their friendly performance to you.

Squirrels nest in dense branches, or use abandoned nests of crows and magpies, and sometimes nest in tree holes; They eat not only wild fruits, but also twigs, buds, leaves, insects and eggs. As soon as autumn comes, squirrels begin to store food. A squirrel often stores several kilograms of food in several places, and sometimes sees squirrels drying food in the trees to prevent food from going bad and moldy. In this way, in the cold winter, squirrels have nothing to eat.

Squirrels have strong fertility. Squirrels, like other rodents, have the characteristics of precocity and rapid reproduction. From January to February every year, the male squirrel and the female squirrel begin to fall in love. The male mouse swings its thick tail and jumps into the canopy to chase the female mouse. At this time, the mother mouse is also very excited and enthusiastic. Estrus lasts about two weeks, during which the male and female are almost inseparable. Female rats give birth to babies at 35-40 days of pregnancy, usually giving birth to two babies every year and occasionally giving birth to three babies. Female rats born in the first year give birth to 3-6 cubs per fetus, and after the second year, they can give birth to 5- 10 cubs per fetus. Newborn cubs are smooth and hairless, with red body and closed eyes. Weight 7-8.5g, body length 5.6cm and tail length 2.4cm.. Young rats begin to mature sexually at 8-9 months, that is, they can reproduce with their spouses in the next year.

Squirrels like to be vegetarian and eat meat occasionally. Its vegetarian diet is mainly Korean pine, spruce, fir, larch and Mongolian pine. Mongolian almond and hazelnut, acorn dried fruit and seeds; Carnivorous foods are mainly insects, larvae, ant eggs and other small animals. When the food is green and yellow, the squirrel has another choice. We eat tree buds in spring and berries such as mushrooms, trays and cranberries in summer. In autumn, food is extremely rich, and we can eat whatever we want, but the most popular is red pine nuts. Speaking of picking pine nuts, this is squirrel's specialty. No matter how tall the tree is and where the cones grow, squirrels can eat them. The specific process is: it first bites the mature cone to the ground and then comes down from the tree. Like primates, it pries open the cone scales with its front feet, bites open the seed coat, takes out the seeds and feeds on pine nuts. Interestingly, when the squirrel is frightened, it doesn't put down the food easily, but runs away with a cone in its mouth.

Squirrels have a developed sense of smell. They can accurately identify the empty seeds of pine nuts. None of the seeds abandoned by pinecone-topped squirrels have any seeds. Although the shells of these seeds have not been bitten open, squirrels can still smell them. Squirrels also have the instinct to store food. When the seeds of Korean pine are ripe in autumn, squirrels run around with pine nuts in their mouths and transport them to a safe place to hide. A few or a dozen are buried underground as food for winter. Although the earth is covered with snow in winter, squirrels can still find their hidden food without difficulty, and some of them are missing. However, it is precisely because it is buried underground that it has not been discovered, which contributes to the diffusion and spread of Korean pine seeds and promotes natural regeneration.

Squirrels are widely distributed, almost all over the forest. Its population depends largely on the richness of food. If there is enough food for several years in a row, the population will increase obviously, especially in the year when pine nuts are harvested, squirrels living in other places will migrate here in groups and breed in situ the next year, so the population will increase sharply; If there is no good harvest of pine nuts in this area, squirrels will have to move their families to find another habitat, resulting in a sharp decline in the number of squirrels in this area. The squirrel's behavior of determining the population size by the richness of food is indeed superior, which is not only conducive to population reproduction but also conducive to population spread.

Squirrels have different living habits from other animals. They like to be active in broad daylight, especially in the early morning. They often jump around between tree trunks and branches, foraging and playing for a while, unrestrained and uncomfortable. Squirrels have no habit of hibernating, but they are not very active in winter. Especially in severe winter, the time to leave the nest is short, usually around 9: 30 in the morning, 1-2 hours; Come out for activities after 1 pm, and stay in the nest at other times. Squirrel has a habit. No matter how cold the weather is, it doesn't eat in its nest. Instead, it sits on a branch, facing the rising sun, puts food into its mouth with its forelimbs in its arms, chews and tastes it with relish, sometimes pricks up its ears to listen, and sometimes turns its eyes to look around, which makes people laugh.

Although the squirrel is one of the larger rodents, it is still threatened by natural enemies because it is not at the top of the food chain. One is carnivorous birds of prey, such as mink, ferret, weasel, owl, golden eagle and so on. The other is mainly magpies and crows, which attack squirrel cubs during the breeding season. In a sense, the healthy reproduction of the hostile squirrel population the day before yesterday is beneficial, because most of the natural enemies are old, weak and sick. The natural enemies of the latter are harmful.

Squirrels are not only cute, but also widely known for their economic value. Squirrel skin has always been one of the main wild furs in Heilongjiang Province, and it was once an important product to earn foreign exchange through export. Squirrel skin can be made into fur coats, scarves and hats, and tail hair can be made into brushes. In recent years, due to the decrease of Korean pine forest, the output of Korean pine nuts for squirrel foraging has decreased, and the number of squirrels has also decreased. At present, the annual output of squirrel skins is less than 20,000 pieces, and the highest in history has reached 1.85 million pieces. It can be seen that the number of squirrels is scarce, and measures should be taken to strictly protect them.

[Edit this paragraph] Breeding habits of squirrels

Squirrels are in estrus every spring 1 and February, and the estrus lasts for about two weeks. The school-age period of squirrel breeding is 8-9 weeks for females and 9- 10 weeks for males. For squirrels, autumn also has estrus. In the non-breeding season, male and female adults occupy a certain place as their own living range. In the wild, females will protect a certain area of land in order to protect food. Other individuals of the same kind are not allowed to enter, and so are males. However, in the breeding season, the territorial protection is obviously relaxed, allowing male individuals to enter. In estrus, the female individual's appetite decreases, her activity increases, and she is agitated and excited. When breeding under artificial breeding conditions, individuals with strong physique, good color, good mental state and strong appetite must be selected. For male individuals, strong sexual desire and mating ability are required; For females, it requires individuals to have a strong maternal instinct, a large number of fetuses and adequate lactation. When mating, one male and one female or one male and many females mate. Squirrels are pregnant for about 35-40 days, and enter lactation in early April. They can give birth about three times a year, and each time they can give birth to 4-6 squirrels. As long as there is enough food, female squirrels can breed more individuals and have strong fertility. Newborn babies take mother's milk as the source of all nutritional needs, so special attention should be paid to the nutritional status of lying-in women at this time. The little squirrel was very small when it was born, unable to see things, and developed slowly. It took nearly 30 days to open its eyes after birth. It was not until a month and a half that the little squirrel was willing to go outdoors.

When the little squirrel's eyes are about to open, if it is kept away from the mother squirrel, it will become very close to people. Initially, hot milk (30-40℃) was fed through a straw, 3-5 times a day. Gradually change to bread or other soft food soaked in milk. Even if you start breeding when you grow up, as long as you train patiently, you will be very close to the people and climb on your master.

[Edit this paragraph] Species and types of squirrels

According to different living environments, the Squirrel Family is divided into tree squirrels, ground squirrels and stone squirrels. There are nearly 35 genera and 2 12 species in the world, and there are 24 species of1kloc-0/genus in China, of which 2 species are endemic to China.

There are many kinds of squirrels, about 240 in the world and 26 in China. Among them, squirrels living in the Woods are very common in Northeast China and North China, so they are also called ordinary squirrels. Its body is slender and its hair is gray, dark brown or reddish brown, so it is also called gray squirrel.

There are three kinds of common squirrels:

1, red-bellied squirrel:

Red-bellied squirrel is also called "red-bellied squirrel", and people in mountainous areas also call it "hanging mouse". It is a medium-sized arboreal squirrel.

Size: 19 ~ 25cm

Weight: 280 ~ 420g

Features: short kiss, small and round ears and thick neck.

Red-bellied squirrels mainly live in dense forests, and their living habits are somewhat similar to those of gray rats. I like to get up in the morning and get sleepy. My diet is mainly nuts, such as pinecones, chestnuts and berries, but also leaves, shoots, buds, eggs, chickens and insects. It can reproduce twice a year, producing 3~4 offspring each time, with 2 offspring in the majority.

2. Long-nosed squirrel:

The long-nosed squirrel is also called the red-billed squirrel.

Size: 20 ~ 25cm

Features: the limbs are slightly shorter, the tail is slender, the tail hair is short and fluffy, the back hair is grayish brown, and the abdominal hair is grayish white.

Long-nosed squirrels generally live in dense forests, and their habits are not much different from those of ordinary squirrels, but they are not completely arboreal. They often feed on the ground, dump trees and haystacks, and are most active in the morning and evening.

3.rock squirrel

Rock squirrels, also known as "stone rats" and "tail-sweeping rats", are a bit like red-bellied squirrels.

Size: 20 ~ 25cm

Tail length: 15cm

Features: The ears are big and obvious, the limbs are slightly short, the tail hair is fluffy and sparse, the back hair is blue-gray, the abdomen and inner limbs are yellow-gray, and the mandible is white.

Rock squirrels inhabit rocky areas in mountainous areas. Although rock squirrels can climb trees, they mainly inhabit rocks and generally nest in cracks in rocks. Rock squirrels are active during the day and mainly feed on wild fruits or plant seeds, such as nuts, walnuts and apricots. But sometimes they also eat crops, which are pests in the mountains.

Other species

6.chipmunks

Size: the body length is about 15cm, and the tail length is about 12 cm.

Origin: Northeast Asia, Hokkaido

Eating habits: omnivorous food dominated by plants.

Little squirrel with several vertical stripes on its back. Small squirrels that have just left their nests are easy to tame if they are raised separately from their parents. Because it moves very fast, it should be noted that it escaped while foraging. It is necessary to prepare a very high cage, and at the same time, in order to avoid insufficient exercise, a sucker cart should be prepared in the cage for squirrels to play with. At the same time, the nest box should be installed. As a hiding place, there is hibernation in nature. If you put it in a warm room, you don't need to hibernate. Due to poor heat resistance, the cage should be moved to a well-ventilated place in summer.

7.squirrels and squirrels

Size: about 25cm in length and 20cm in tail length.

Origin: Hokkaido

Eating habits: omnivorous food dominated by plants.

Distributed in Hokkaido, Japan, it is a subspecies of Japanese squirrel distributed in the south of Honshu, Japan, and its size is slightly larger than that of Japanese squirrel. Coat color will change in summer and winter. In winter, the back is gray, the abdomen is white, and the ears are long; In summer, the whole body is light reddish brown, and there is no long hair in the ears. Feeding in the same way as chipmunks. Because they are big, they need big and strong cages. You don't need to hibernate in winter, you can move as usual.

8. Groundhog and Mouse

Size: about 30cm in length and 8cm in tail length.

Origin: North America

Eating habits: omnivorous food dominated by plants.

Body color varies from yellow to brown. Stout, with a short tail. People live in interconnected caves dug on the grassland. Because I am used to living in groups, I won't fight even if I have one more. It often appears in eco-movies and is a very popular and lovely animal. In particular, the movements of standing and sitting are particularly cute and easy to tame. At the same time, the tail will swing like a dog, which is very popular. The food is mainly plants, and hamster artificial feed and dog food are also good choices. Although there are pairs on the market, it is still very difficult to breed.

9. Japanese flying squirrel

Size: the body length is about 15cm, and the tail length is about 12 cm.

Origin: Asia

Eating habits: omnivorous food dominated by plants.

The back is grayish brown and the abdomen is white. There is a skin membrane between the limbs, which can slide in the air after opening. Nocturnal Animals's unique big eyes are very cute in appearance. Mainly active at night, it is the most suitable pet for night owls. A bird's nest box is prepared in the cage for sleeping during the day. After training, you can let it out and slide indoors. They belong to the same family as squirrels, and their feeding methods can be compared. Usually, fruit and squirrel's artificial feed are the staple food, and occasionally some animal food is fed.

10. European red squirrel

Size: about 30cm long and 20cm long at the tail.

Origin: Central Europe to West Asia

Eating habits: omnivorous food dominated by plants.

Big squirrel. The whole body is bright reddish brown and the abdomen is white. Ears have long hair. Large size, lively movements, need to have a considerable cage when raising.

1 1. Tricolor squirrel

Size: about 20cm long, tail length 15cm.

Origin: Malay Peninsula, Sumatra

Eating habits: omnivorous food dominated by plants.

Medium-sized squirrel inhabiting the tropical rain forest. The back and tail are dark reddish-brown, with striped leucorrhea from cheeks to both sides, the forelimbs and ventral sides are yellowish brown, and the abdomen is white. Among the squirrels whose fur is generally simple and monotonous, they belong to a lower gorgeous one. Living in trees, but most of the food is obtained from the ground. The feeding method is the same as other squirrels such as chipmunks.

There are six kinds of squirrels, namely three kinds of squirrels and three kinds of flying squirrels, namely red-bellied squirrels, striped squirrels, Dutch squirrels, red squirrels, white-faced squirrels and small squirrels.

[Edit this paragraph] Feeding management of squirrels

I. Construction and preparation of farmhouses

Squirrels live alone in the wild, so the environmental conditions provided should enable them to have enough solitary conditions and contact with each other to facilitate reproduction.

(a) closed conditions

It is an open three-wall type, facing south, with brick walls on three sides, with an area of 5 meters long, 3 meters wide and 3 meters high. On the concrete surface, there is a door (1.8m high and 7m wide) leading to the north operation corridor, but there should be a small partition outside the door, about 2m2, and a side door leading to the corridor, mainly to prevent animals from running out directly. Nail several rows of small wooden boxes on three walls of the house, and nail the first row when it is off the ground 1 m. The size of the wooden box is 25 cm long and 25 cm wide, with openings on one side (height 15 cm, width 12 cm) and the spacing between boxes is 30 cm. The distance between rows (the top of the lower row and the bottom of the upper row) is 30 cm, and the two rows of wooden cases can be staggered. You can go all the way to the top. After breeding, it can be adjusted according to the actual situation. In the middle of the room, put a big dead tree or two or three medium dead trees for them to move.

(2) Sports field conditions

Directly connected with the open pen house, the area is 36 meters long, 3 meters wide and 3 meters high. The three sides and the ceiling are made of fine barbed wire, and the mesh is not more than 1.5 cm. Under the net, there are brick walls 20 cm from the ground. Similarly, properly place 1 ~ 2 dead branches and concrete floor.

Second, feeding management and breeding technology

(1) feed

Pine nuts, hazelnuts, melon seeds, sunflowers, pears, apples, etc. Can be fed, and can provide as many kinds of feed as possible according to the season and different regions. Feed can be divided into several places to avoid their competition. Dry ingredients can be added/kloc-0 every 2 ~ 3 days, and fruits can be supplied every day, so it is better to eat them on the same day. There should always be clear water in the washbasin.

(2) Management

When it is hot in summer, you can observe the performance of animals. If necessary, add temporary straw mats or bamboo mats to the ceiling of the sports ground for shading, and spray water to cool down. There is no need to do heat preservation measures in winter.

(3) Key points of propagation technology

When introducing animals, we must choose healthy animals for breeding, and the male-female ratio can be 3 ~ 4: 1. Picking out the weak, especially the weak males, may be attacked by other males. During the breeding period, you can give some animal foods, such as boiled eggs and bread, to see if they like it. In addition, put some clean dead leaves, broken hemp, twigs and so on. Give them something to pad or nest in the circle. Babies born for half a year should be raised separately to avoid excessive density.

Three. Prevention and control of diseases and natural enemies

Because squirrels are artificially raised, the number is small, they are not paid much attention to, and it is not easy to observe, so there is no report of a certain disease. But they belong to rodents and may spread plague on beams, so they must be cleaned every day and disinfected regularly. In addition, pens and sports grounds must guard against wild rats and domestic rats, which will rob feed, hurt squirrels and spread diseases.

4. Feeding management

Squirrels seem to feed on the seeds of FAGACEAE plants, but they also eat quite a lot of insects in nature, so it is best to feed some animal food. Nuts such as walnuts and chestnuts are squirrels' favorite. Biting open the hard shell is not only a squirrel's game, but also helps to wear teeth. It is best to feed this food often. If artificial feed is the staple food, it should be supplemented by apples and other foods.

Good feed and scientific management are important conditions to ensure the normal growth and development of squirrels, and also to improve the productivity and variety of squirrels. Pay special attention to the content and quality of protein in the proportion of feed mix. Squirrel feed includes mixed feed, coarse feed and green juicy feed. Generally, the mixed feed consists of barley, wheat, corn, soybean and husk, with the content of barley or wheat 25%, corn 20%, bean cake 15%, soybean 10%, drum skin 20%, fish meal 6%, bone meal 3% and salt 1%. Coarse grains mainly include peanuts, sunflowers and walnuts. Green and juicy feeds include Chinese cabbage, carrots, rape, mulberry leaves and Hollyleaf; You can also feed some fruits and vegetables in summer and autumn, such as cucumbers, tomatoes and watermelons. The daily feed amount of each squirrel is about 30 grams of mixed feed, 200-250 grams of coarse feed and green and juicy feed 150-200 grams. Feed three times a day in the morning, noon and evening, and fix the feeding point every day. For young squirrels, the feeding times should be appropriately increased to ensure that they can eat at any time to meet their energy and nutritional needs for growth and development.

In different periods, the nutritional requirements of squirrels for food have different changes. For female squirrels, the feed during pregnancy and lactation should be diversified, the feed should be as fresh as possible, and the nutritional components should be complete, so as to meet the nutritional needs of the fetus or larvae, especially to increase the protein content in the diet. For larvae at different developmental stages, we should also pay attention to the composition of food nutritional structure when feeding.

Male squirrels should also strengthen nutrition and increase the supply of fish meal and milk during the breeding period and recovery period; However, it should be noted that if the supply of carbohydrates exceeds that of feeding standard, it will lead to the decline of squirrel's physique and affect its growth and development speed for its young.

Squirrels must pay attention to the cleanliness of drinking water, change water frequently in summer, and avoid drinking frozen water in winter to reduce the possibility of poor animal health and infection.

Verb (abbreviation for verb) feeding environment

Squirrels are very lively, especially like to climb trees, and the activity space is relatively three-dimensional. Try to choose a wide and high cage. Because squirrels are used to building nests in trees, the nest box should be installed high in the cage. The nest box can be replaced by a bird's higher nest box in AG. Squirrels move very quickly, so be careful when opening and closing the door to avoid running away. If you run away, grab it suddenly and try to avoid being bitten by a squirrel.

Generally speaking, the house for raising squirrels is required to be located in the southeast direction, which is warm in winter and cool in summer, with certain light, which is beneficial to animal health. Animals' houses and cages should conform to their living habits. The house where squirrels are kept can be nailed with wire nails or wooden boards, and the area should be appropriately larger. When feeding in a single cage, the size of the outer movable cage can be 60×25×45 or 55×45×45 double cage, which is used as a mating place for feeding, drinking, moving and breeding. The periphery and top of the outer cage can be woven with iron wire, the mesh size is 4 ~ 3.5 cm, and the cage bottom can be woven with thicker iron wire; The sides and back can also be replaced with glass or iron sheets, and small doors can be installed to facilitate animals to go in and out or clean up, or to put food and water. In addition to the outer cage, there must be a nest box for it to live, rest and calve; The nest box can be made of wooden nails, the thickness is 1.5 ~ 2.0 cm, and the length, width and height are 30X25X25 cm or 45X35X45 cm. The outer cage can be installed together with the nest box; It can also be placed separately to let squirrels in and out freely.

Squirrels can also be raised on a large scale. In this case, a larger pet house is needed, which is divided into two parts: a playground and a house where animals rest and sleep. On the playground, we should plant trees or place perches for squirrels to climb and jump. Male and female adult squirrels should be raised separately in non-breeding period. If left for planting, squirrels need special care and can be raised separately. The area of a pet is larger than that of other single cage individuals, so as to ensure that it has enough exercise, the size can be 90X30X45 cm, and the bottom of the cage should be provided with a dung bearing plate, which is convenient for cleaning and disinfection.

Every pet should have a food basin frame and a drinking basin, and they should be fixed well, so as not to knock over, dirty or wet the environment; The food basin can be made of enamel or plastic.

Although squirrels live in cold temperate zones. In the mixed area of broad-leaved forest, because of the superb nesting technology, the temperature inside the nest is much higher than that outside. Therefore, in order to ensure its safe overwintering under artificial feeding conditions, the temperature should generally be kept at 5 ~ 23 degrees Celsius, not too low, otherwise it will affect its reproductive ability.