An interview with Michael E Beran, who is a Master Falconer at Wildlife Command Center, has provided some expertise and inspiration for our Squirrel Relocation Service to help squirrels find their new habitats after the pin oak trees are gone.
Pin oak trees are seasonal food resource for squirrels for a short period. Urban squirrels do not generally like to live in trees, but they also like to live in people’s houses and other built environment very well. They like to chase, run and fight with each other, so they are active all over the spaces, such as on the roof top and in the tree cavities.
Pin oaks are part of the habitat and they do provide a significant amount of food. Removing these habitats will definitely have impacts on squirrels’ life. However, taking them to an unfamiliar habitat is going to put them in danger, as they need to find food and water resources, and get themselves exposed to hawks, and other predators. More than 60% of relocated animals to unfamiliar habitats can’t survive. But, there are two potential options that can be done:
- Providing artificial habitat, such as squirrel boxes, to make them blend in the environment, the disadvantages would be the when squirrels do the bark stripping activities, these boxes won’t heal themselves like the trees do, so certain maintenance is needed.
- Providing other food resources, that could be sunflowers, apple trees, sweet potatoes or other oak trees. That needs another type of maintenance to keep those trees well to provide a supplementary good food resource. The disadvantage is that human intervention would also alter the squirrel generation.
The One Tree Project 