Eastern Gray Squirrel Marking Behavior
Eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) are known to communicate by leaving scent at marking points throughout their home ranges by cheek rubbing, biting bark, and sometimes urinating. The most conspicuous sign of this behavior can be found near the base of large-diameter, thick-barked trees, which squirrels have visited over long periods of time. When visiting these marking points, squirrels often chip away some of the bark which is likely to aid in scent deposition, but also results in an area of discoloration noticeable to the trained eye. Upon closer inspection, bite marks left from the incisors can be discovered. If you are lucky you may even get a whiff of the messages left behind. I often describe it as a sweet musky odor.
We intend to use camera traps to collect data about the use of marking points by squirrels. Some questions we would like to start with are: How often are marking points visited? Is there a certain time of day that marking points are visited? Are there differences in marking frequency throughout the year? Do red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) ever use gray squirrel marking points?
Note: Due to the nature of our project and the current format of eMammal data entry, we are using the Male/Female attribute to indicate if a squirrel pictured was seen investigating the marking point. We do not actually know the sex of the squirrels in the images. If a squirrel is pictured investigating the marking point, then the squirrel is recorded as a male. If the squirrel is not pictured investigating the marking point, then it is recorded as a Female.