Squirrel Nest Box – Delmarva Peninsula, USA

This whole project started because of allergies. The couple behind it are too allergic to own a pet, so they set up around 200 cameras in their backyard to watch the local gray squirrels instead. They never feed the squirrels by hand. Food is dispensed remotely, and they don’t go near an occupied nest box unless an animal is sick and a wildlife rehab has asked them to bring it in.

Gray squirrels don’t hibernate. On the coldest nights they hunker down in their nests and will even share one to stay warm. Winter is also courtship season, which kicks off around December.

Most females have two litters a year, one in late winter and one in midsummer. The babies are born pink, hairless and blind, and their eyes don’t open until they’re about four or five weeks old. Mothers will also move a whole litter to a new nest if they don’t like the old one, and families here have switched nest boxes more than once.

Did You Know? A newborn gray squirrel weighs about half an ounce, roughly the size of your thumb.

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