The chewing is partly need for simple sugars at the end of the dormant
season; partly the marking of territory - but this latter is usually
accompanied by some sort of scent marking as well.

This is a very common occurrence with grey, red, and flying squirrels in the
Northeast US (IME).

Mike

--
Mike LaMana, MS
Heartwood Consulting Services, LLC
Toms River, NJ
www.HeartwoodConsulting.net


"nutso fasst" wrote in message
om...
We've got an overpopulation of fox squirrels in the neighborhood, with at
least five nests in our backyard alone. The squirrels have always gone
after
our fruit, but in the last few years they have begun stripping entire
treesful before it fully ripens. We have walnut trees and I don't begrudge
them walnuts, but the loss of oranges, persimmons, pomegranates, plums and
apricots ****es me off. Now we have a new problem: they are stripping the
bark off elm and chinese silk trees and eating the new leaf shoots off the
apricots. Peaceful coexistence is ending. I'm getting a slingshot and
looking for squirrel recipes. But I wonder about this bark-eating
behavior,
which I never noticed or heard of before. It's not like these guys are
starving--they're some of the plumpest squirrels I've ever seen. Is this
usual behavior?

nf