Abert's squirrel
A tasseled-eared squirrel of ponderosa pine forests at Mesa Verde, Rocky Mountain, and Great Sand Dunes, nicknamed the scrabbit.
Abert's squirrel at a glance
Sciurus aberti AY-berts SKWIR-uhl; Sciurus aberti is SKY-oor-us uh-BER-tye
- Type
- Mammal · rodents
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Size
- Up to about 23 inches long from nose to tail, close to the length of a baseball bat, with tall, rabbit-like ear tufts.
- Lifespan
- Not well known in the wild. One lived to 7 years in captivity.
Eats ponderosa pine seeds and cones, the soft inner bark of pine twigs, mushrooms, old bones and antlers
It clips the tips of ponderosa pine twigs to reach the soft inner bark, and eats pine seeds, cones, buds, and mushrooms. NPS at Great Sand Dunes says it will also gnaw on cast-off bones and antlers, and NPS at Rocky Mountain says it does not stockpile pine cones the way most tree squirrels store up winter food.
Should you worry?
Harmless and shy. It won't bother anyone. NPS asks visitors not to feed park wildlife, including squirrels, so watch for the ear tufts and let it keep working the pines.
A ponderosa pine cone turns slowly in a squirrel’s paws, the way a kid turns a cob of corn to find the next bare row, and each turn strips another scale away to get at the seed underneath. The ears give it away before anything else does: two tall, dark tufts that look borrowed from a rabbit, which is exactly the joke that stuck it with the nickname “scrabbit.” Its coat can run solid black, gray, or white, but the tufted ears are always there, at Mesa Verde, Rocky Mountain, and Great Sand Dunes alike, wherever ponderosa pine grows.
Most squirrels spend the fall packing away a winter’s worth of food. Abert’s squirrel mostly doesn’t. NPS at Rocky Mountain says it “does not store them in appreciable amounts,” meaning no buried hoard of cones waiting under the snow. Instead it keeps working the same ponderosa pines all year: seeds and cones when they’re on the tree, the soft inner bark of clipped twigs when they aren’t, mushrooms when it finds them, and, when calcium is short, an old bone or a cast-off antler picked clean.
That makes the squirrel a kind of live gauge of the pine itself: no ponderosa, no scrabbit. Watch one work a cone scale by scale on a branch at Mesa Verde, and it’s reading the same tree the rest of the forest depends on, one bite at a time, with nothing saved for later.
Did you know?
- It's nicknamed the "scrabbit" because its tall, tufted ears look almost rabbit-like.
- Its coat can be solid black, gray, or white, or a mix of those colors, always with the same tufted ears.
- Unlike most tree squirrels, it doesn't build up a big stored cache of pine cones for winter, according to NPS at Rocky Mountain.
Common questions
Why is it called a scrabbit?
Because its tall, pointed ear tufts make it look a little like a rabbit, so people joke it's part squirrel, part rabbit.
What do Abert's squirrels eat?
Mostly ponderosa pine: seeds, cones, buds, and the soft inner bark of twigs, plus mushrooms and, sometimes, an old bone or antler.
Do Abert's squirrels store food for winter like other squirrels?
Not really. NPS at Rocky Mountain says they don't stockpile pine cones in any real amount, so they keep finding fresh ponderosa pine food through the colder months instead.
What color are Abert's squirrels?
Solid black, gray, white, or a mix of those colors, always with the same tufted ears.
What eats an Abert's squirrel?
Its typical predators are northern goshawks, mountain lions, bobcats, and coyotes. It spends most of its time up in pines with touching branches, off the ground where more of them can reach it.