Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
February 1, 2007 issue
Endangered Squirrels Recorded on Grandfather’s Daniel Boone Scout Trail
Grandfather Mountain teamed up with a non-game biologist from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission in January to locate and record sightings of the Northern flying squirrel, an animal on the state’s endangered species list.
Surveyors checked 40 squirrel boxes on the Daniel Boone Scout Trail and found five squirrels.
Surveyors took an extension ladder on the trail for climbing up to the squirrel boxes. The person who climbed up to the box placed a small net over the opening and tapped the box. If a squirrel was inside, it came out of the box and into the net.
The squirrels were weighed, had their back feet measured and were tagged. The tags will alert researchers on future surveys that the squirrel had previously been found and recorded.
The Northern flying squirrel has thick light brown or cinnamon fur on its upper body and is grayish-white underneath. A fury membrane extending between the squirrel’s front and rear legs allows the animal to glide through the air.
Another type of flying squirrel, the Southern flying squirrel, is commonly found in this area and is approximately one-third smaller than the Northern variation. That is why measuring the back foot of the squirrels found on the trail let researchers know which type of flying squirrel they had found.
“Finding five is good and we are even more excited because one of the females found might have been pregnant,” Grandfather Mountain Naturalist Jesse Pope said.
Grandfather Mountain is located in the most southern part of the squirrels’ range. A decrease in numbers would be an indicator that the animal’s range might be getting smaller.
Grandfather Mountain has a total of 165 squirrel boxes. The other boxes are located on the Profile and in-park trails. Surveys of Northern flying squirrels on Grandfather Mountain have been going on for more than 10 years. The records from these trips are allowing the NC Wildlife Resources Commission to gain a better understanding of a population estimate for the animal in Western North Carolina.