squirrelA blur of black zipped across the ground and up the trunk of the mighty Ponderosa Pine.  He disappeared from sight momentarily.  Then he reappeared as he darted out on the limb of the tree.  The tufts of his ears stood straight up as his eyes darted from side to side.  Scurrying back down the tree, he picked up a cone from the ground, grabbing it in his mouth before disappearing once again.  The hunting and gathering is on in force.

Before moving to Colorado, I had never seen the Abert’s squirrel before.  Gray squirrels, yes, in abundance.  But once you see an Abert’s squirrel, you never forget it.  The first time I spotted one, I stopped dead in my tracks.  The squirrel was coal black, but it was those ear tufts that got me.  They look like feathers attached to the ears, like his own personal headdress.  What the heck was that?  The blackness of his fur made me think of him as the “devil squirrel.”  But he was no devil.

Living at 8200 feet surrounded by Ponderosa Pine trees, Abert’s squirrels are seen more commonly than one would think.  They have a symbiotic relationship with the Ponderosa, depending upon them for their survival, but helping them to regenerate as well.  They eat on the seeds of the prickly pine cones during summer, but while carrying the cones around, help disseminate its seed at the same time.  During the colder months, it nibbles on the bark of the tree.

Food is not its only reward from the might red-barked pine.  The Abert’s squirrel uses the twigs and needles to build nest up in its branches as well.  Being active all year long, now is the time for industriousness, collecting food to cache for the long winter ahead.

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