Squirrels are bushy-tailed rodents found in every state in the U.S. except Hawaii. Even Alaska has squirrels that can survive in the tundra.
Sometimes we take our familiar furry neighbors for granted, and overlook some of their amazing abilities. Did you know that squirrels use their fluffy tails for balance, as a way to communicate, to keep warm in winter and as a parachute during falls?
Wild at Home is a 12-episode series created for curious kids and young-at-heart adventurers from NHPR and the Harris Center. Naturalists Karen Rent and Susie Spikol uncover the everyday outdoor magic scampering right in your backyard.
Find out more about our furry neighbors by reading or exploring some activities in your own backyard.
Squirrel Natural History and Online Reading
National Geographic Kids: Eastern Gray Squirrel
NH PBS Natureworks Red Squirrel
NH PBS Natureworks Flying Squirrel
Books
Squirrels Leap, Squirrels Sleep by April Pulley Sayre
Those Darn Squirrels by Adam Rubin
The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel by Thornton W Burgess - a 1915 children's nature book about a mischievous red squirrel.
Visit our Harris Center Reads page for squirrel books of all ages.
Activities
Visit the Harris Center’s Go Wild page for some fun squirrel-related activities like squirrel charades: Close your eyes and imagine that your body is sprouting brown fur. Next you grow a bushy tail and your teeth turn orange and become very sharp. You are now a squirrel!
Build a backyard squirrel obstacle course.
Squirrel Videos
How do squirrels find their nuts?
Spy Squirrel - strategies squirrels use to bury acorns
Squirrel’s Guide to Success: Obstacle Course - demonstrates how squirrels use their bodies.
You can hear Wild at Home on NHPR Sunday at 9:35 a.m. every other week for 12 weeks.
Stream episodes anytime at NHPR.org, listen on the NHPR app, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts on Apple and Spotify.
Wild at Home is a series created for curious kids and young-at-heart adventurers by NHPR and theHarris Center for Conservation Education.
