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‘Love is in the air:’ February is prime mating season for squirrels

(Courtesy: Unsplash/Raymond Eichelberger)

February isn’t just a month of love for humans. Though they may not be exchanging flowers and chocolates, it is also mating season for squirrels.

The most common squirrel Ontarians will typically see this month is the Eastern Grey Squirrel, even though its colour is black. They typically mate two times a year and a female can start looking for a partner during mating season as early as two years old. 

If you’ve seen a mangy-looking squirrel with patches of fur ripped out, you don’t necessarily need to be scared that it’s rabid.

“Sometimes what you’re going to see is once they start making their nests, the female will rip off her own for fur,” GTA Branch Manager with Orkin Canada, Ed Bandurka told Now Toronto. “So you may see a squirrel that has patches of hair missing… She’s ripping off her own fur to help with nesting material.”

And she won’t stop there.

Bandurka said squirrels will look for and use all kinds of soft materials to create a welcoming nest for their babies— including the insulation from your home. 

Squirrels are diurnal (the opposite of nocturnal), meaning they are active in the daytime. This means that if you have squirrels breaking into your attic to steal insulation, you may not notice since they would typically commit the act when most people are at work.

There are things you can do to prevent squirrels from committing a break-and-enter in the name of their babies. 

“If you’ve got trees that are taller than the house, and those branches are touching the house, that makes it very easy for a squirrel to go up the tree,” Bandurka said. 

He suggests homeowners should ensure branches don’t graze their houses. “If you make it easy for them, why would they not want to?”

He adds if homeowners have access to a drone, it makes it very easy to do an aerial inspection of the roof to see if there are any holes.

If squirrels find it easy to get into a home and steal insulation, they may also begin to nest there or store their valuables—nuts. 

Residents may also see squirrels more often and, more notably, hear them more often during mating season. Males are known to make a chirping noise and drum on trees to attract female squirrels’ attention. 

“If you see a squirrel on top of a roof and it’s just chirping, it’s kind of making its presence known,” Bandurka said. “It’s no different when we go out. If you’re in the dating world, you want to look pretty good, your hair nice. I want to wear nice cologne—that kind of thing to attract the other species or whoever you want to attract.”

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