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The small, noisy red squirrel Tamiasciurus hudsonicus is characteristic of conifer forests throughout much of the Boreal and subpolar regions North America; these were all photographed in Alaska: near Seward, in Anchorage, and in Denali National Park. A major part of their diet is conifer seeds, and in several images here the animal is getting seeds out of spruce cones. Red squirrels also eat a lot of mushrooms, including ones highly toxic to humans: one of the squirrels on this page was eating and caching pieces of Amanita muscaria in an Achnorage front yard. It placed dozens of mushroom chunks in the branches of a spruce tree, presumably to dry. A close relative, the Douglas squirrel or chickaree (T. douglasii) is found farther south and west (the two species may overlap in southeastern Alaska). |
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