Douglas squirrel

A small, loud tree squirrel of West Coast conifer forests, known for cutting green cones by the hundred and scolding every hiker who walks under its tree.

We saw it Our family spotted this one at Olympic National Park in July 2026.

  • A Douglas squirrel on a fir branch in the Selkirk Mountains.Jesse Taylor
  • A Douglas squirrel eating young Douglas fir cones.Marshal Hedin

Douglas squirrel at a glance

Tamiasciurus douglasii DUG-lus squirrel; Tamiasciurus douglasii is tam-ee-ah-SKY-yur-us dug-LASS-ee-eye

Type
Mammal · rodent
Diet
Omnivore
Size
About the length of a grown-up's forearm, elbow to fingertip (around 13 inches / 33 cm nose to tail), and light enough to sit in one hand (roughly 200 grams / 7 ounces).
Lifespan
Usually 3 to 4 years in the wild; a few live longer.
Conservation
Least concern

Eats conifer seeds, mushrooms, berries, bird eggs, buds

A Douglas squirrel spends its day cutting green cones from high in a conifer, letting them thud to the ground, then hauling them to one central pile to eat later. It also eats mushrooms, berries, and the occasional bird egg, and its droppings scatter fungal spores that help the forest's roots take up nutrients.

Should you worry?

Harmless if left alone. A Douglas squirrel will scold you loudly from a branch but won't approach a person unless it's been fed before. Never feed it. If one has learned to expect food from hikers, it may nip at fingers looking for a handout, so keep snacks zipped up.

The rattle comes first, a scolding chatter from somewhere overhead, and only after you stop and look up does the Douglas squirrel itself show up: a reddish-brown blur working its way along a branch with a green cone clamped in its jaws. Hikers up and down the West Coast conifer forests know that sound as the “chickaree,” and most people hear one long before they ever spot it.

The squirrel isn’t waiting for that cone to ripen. It cuts cones green, while the seeds are still sealed tight, and drops them to the forest floor with a thud, then hauls the whole pile to one central cache called a midden, sometimes used by generations of the same family until it’s yards across. John Muir, watching Sierra forests in the 1870s, wrote that this one small animal handled more than half of all the cones that ripened there each year, and of the giant sequoia’s cones specifically, close to ninety percent. A sequoia cone needs something to pry its tight scales open before its seeds can reach the ground, usually fire or a squirrel’s teeth. Later NPS research in Sequoia and Kings Canyon clocked a single squirrel cutting cones at about twenty a minute.

Stand under a big conifer and look for a scattering of gnawed cone scales in the litter. That’s midden trash, but it’s also nursery work: seeds a two-hundred-gram squirrel just freed for the next generation of the tallest trees on Earth to grow from.

Did you know?

  • A Douglas squirrel doesn't wait for cones to ripen and fall. It cuts them green, while the seeds are still tucked in tight, and lets them drop to the forest floor with a thud you can hear from the trail.
  • It stores its cut cones in one giant pile, called a midden, and the same pile can get used by generations of squirrels until it's several yards across.
  • Its bark is loud enough that most hikers hear a Douglas squirrel, nicknamed the "chickaree" for its rattling call, long before they see one.

Common questions

What is a chickaree?

Another name for the Douglas squirrel, from the rattling, chattering call it uses to scold anything that gets too close to its tree.

Why does the Douglas squirrel cut cones before they're ripe?

A green cone still has its seeds sealed inside. By cutting it early and storing it in a cool, damp midden, the squirrel keeps the seeds fresh until it's ready to eat them, sometimes months later.

Do Douglas squirrels help the giant sequoias?

Yes. A sequoia cone needs something to pry its scales open before the seeds can fall out, usually fire or a squirrel's teeth. By gnawing through cones for food, the squirrel frees seeds that might otherwise stay sealed up for years.

Are Douglas squirrels dangerous?

No. They're small, wild, and shy of people who don't feed them. Leave them alone and they'll do the same for you.

Where it lives

Where we got this