Squirrel population density

[greg]

Does anyone know what a typical eastern gray squirrel population density might be in a fairly densely populated, but still considered suburban environment (8000sq Ft lots with plenty of little parks around)?

Another question: Is it possible to damage the local population by just picking them off a single property (not that damaging EGS population is a bad thing here in the northwest, as it is considered an invasive species) bit still, since its pretty much the only hunting I can do with my air gun in the state - I am wondering if I should introduce my own 'hunting seasons' and such Specifically, I shot (and ate, and kept pelts of) about 15 of them over the past year. Again, all from a single residential lot. Have not seen a single squirrel in over a month. Could I have eaten them all?

Edit: typos

 

[npunk42]

I think so. I have an account that I was pesting for ground squirrels. I didn't know it but the security guys were coming in on the weekends and picking them off. There were many hundreds of squirrels and the thought of doing any serious reduction in their population was laughable. UNTIL, they actually did it. It took six to eight months, but now in this wilderness area that was crawling with ground squirrels, I don't see but a few if any. Your mileage may vary, but I didn't think it could be done, but I was wrong.

 

[billydjann]

I have thought the same thing in my area.... small town back yard...
I put up the squirrel cam and can see they come around when I am not around mostly in the dark early mornings....

Last three years I have been getting anywhere from 15 to 18 or more a year in my small yard....
This year I am up to 16 and they keep coming...... from where... who the hell knows...

This weekend I thought I got all the squirrels in my area.. only to bag another 3 grays Saturday... all big males....
4th one got away,( I believe a flyer or bad pellet)--- 

 

[Gritz]

I have thought about this a lot. One season I was trying out recipes and started taking squirrels off of my bird feeders in town. After about four or five I thought I better slow down. Squirrels can live a very long time so when you see so many sometimes you wonder how many there really are. I think it really depends upon tree types, food supply, and predation, among many other variables. I thought I might have been killing all of them and was worried because my neighbor had feeders specific for squirrels and she loved to see them. Turned out not to be a problem. After I took upwards of 15 out of my back yard I saw a squirrel come take the nut out of a squirrels mouth that I had just shot. Later in the season I counted 7 squirrels that I could see at one time from a large Maple tree in my front yard. So, there were literally more than 30 squirrels living within my block in town. But that doesn't mean that it will always be that way. If you happen to get most of the females it will obviously cut down on the population. My block had about six very large, ancient oak and maple trees that had many holes and nesting space, plus black walnuts close by for excellent food supply. If you have a bumper crop of mast then you will have squirrels. If you have a few years of little mast or unfavorable conditions it can be hard on squirrels.
My take on the subject is this: if you keep hunting a single kill zone, and you keep your take reasonable, even if you completely destroy the population within that area, you will have little or no squirrel activity for a while and then slowly they will wonder back into the area. I don't think most people hunt squirrels. In fact, very few people hunt squirrels compared to the amount of people who feed them and just ignore them. Therefore, the small area you affect will not affect a large area, but it can affect your specific area for a while. So if you wipe out the squirrels in your yard but the squirrels down the street will eventually wonder down. Put it this way, if you wanted to eliminate squirrels from your area, shooting them on site would be a poor and ineffective way to do it. In Europe they have been trying to eliminate grey squirrels for decades and have been failing miserably. Even with paid squirrel shooters.

 

[LDD]

Here is an article that discusses squirrel population.

http://www.alloutdoor.com/2015/02/25/planning-eat-squirrel-tshtf-again/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=2015-09-19&utm_campaign=Weekly+Newsletter

I don't worry about hurting the population in urban areas. I live in Georgia and during the 4 years in lived in the city I killed 400 squirrels out of my back yard. I had a tally on my fridge. If I recall correctly, 12 was my best in one day. Even that didn't put a dent in the population. The longest I would go without seeing a squirrel was about a month.

 

[Robonline]

"LDD"Here is an article that discusses squirrel population.

http://www.alloutdoor.com/2015/02/25/planning-eat-squirrel-tshtf-again/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=2015-09-19&utm_campaign=Weekly+Newsletter

I don't worry about hurting the population in urban areas. I live in Georgia and during the 4 years in lived in the city I killed 400 squirrels out of my back yard. I had a tally on my fridge. If I recall correctly, 12 was my best in one day. Even that didn't put a dent in the population. The longest I would go without seeing a squirrel was about a month.

X2
Taking them from one lot is unlikely to effect the overall population. They will learn to avoid your lot for awhile though. This may give you the impression that you are making headway in controlling them. Forget that idea. They will come back and fill any void you create.
Rob.

 

[greg]

Thanks for your thoughts, guys, and LDD, thanks for a very useful article. I did not realize that the carrying capacity of suburbs may be as low as only a couple squirrels per acre.

Also, 100 per year, 12 in a single day from one backyard, Boy! Based on my sample of 3 so far (myself, billydjan and Gritz) - looks like the average "harvest per backyard per year" is around 15-20. Your area must have had some ultra-productive food source to support 5x that much (pardon my very crude math here).

 

[echochap]

I go the other way. I have several places close to home that I want to ensure I always have squirrels to hunt, so started doing what I termed 2/2 hunts. In these places, typically smaller woods of around 5-10 acres my limit is either 2 squirrels or hunt 2 hours, whioch ever comes first. If I need to field test a gun, I know I have a dozen places within a half hour where I am going to have a good chance. I am nuturing my sites.

 

[Helimech]

I wouldn't worry about the squirrel population. If you are not seeing them anymore, then they have gotten wise to your habits and only come around when you are not. I've killed 128 grey squirrels this year (at the time of this post) in my back yard and I have not noticed a decline in population. They will avoid my property or go where they know I can't shoot them, but they are still around. I started shooting these fuzzy little b@*¥\^ds after they started to destroy my belongings. They got into my sheds, destroyed my lawn furniture, got into my house, chewed my grill hoses, and way too many other things to list here. I killed 98 squirrels last year all in my back yard. Don't fear thinning out the population because they will come back. 

 

[Dan25]

Its all about habitat. If you have good habitat you will have tree rats. I live in what was a pecan orchard and kill 60 to 100 a year out of my back yard. If I work at it I can clean them out but others will migrate in within a week or so. It would take a hell of an effort by all property owners to eradicate them and all would have to be diligent to keep the population low. They really do breed like rats.

 

[Bam86]

Just read an interesting article in a newspaper historical section. Back in 1824 in Switzerland County Indiana the local farmers were tired of the loss of the corn and beans to squirrels so the organized a on day competition. There were 2 teams of 15 shooters (would have been muzzle loaders), and in a one day hunt, they shot 1007 squirrels. It didn't help much, so they did the same thing one day in the following two months. Seems they didn't do much to the population, because there are still plenty of squirrels around there.

They just seem to be everywhere when the habitat is right.

 

[MRodSniper]

I agree with Dan25, it comes down to the amount of food, and cover in your suburban landscape. My scenario is a small midwestern town with many mature norway maple, birch, elm, oak and other species of trees ideally suited for the grey squirrels. Plenty of bird feeders in the area to keep their little rat bellies full. In the the last 4 years I have taken about 716 grey squirrels just from my kitchen window.(My property has a 7 foot fence so I dont have to worry about ricochets) All of my neighbors know I shoot them, and the destructive cotton tail rabbits. One of my neighbors even brings me homemade raspberry jam every year to thank me for shooting critters. In suburban US, there is no way to keep the critter population in check other than people trimming the populations down with airguns. My philosophy is.. They keep coming, I'll keep shooting them.

 

[greg]

700+ squirrels in 4 years - I am speechless. I agree, it seems my area is simply not productive enough (pacific northwest, west of cascades). Most of the trees are conifers (Firs and Cedars) with deciduous nut bearing trees still being quite rare and almost exclusively planted intentionally for ornamental purposes. That explains why EGS does not spread into a much less densely populated eastern part of the state.

I'll keep stats for a few years and will see what a stable yearly 'harvest' looks like for my backyard.

Thanks, guys for publishing your numbers, it was really interesting to see how different 'production' levels can be.