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A drey is the nest of a tree squirrel, flying squirrel or ringtail possum. [1] Dreys are usually built of twigs, dry leaves, and grass, and typically assembled in the forks of a tall tree. [2] They are sometimes referred to as "drey nests" to distinguish them from squirrel "cavity nests" (also termed "dens").
In Norse mythology, the squirrel Ratatoskr is a messenger who scurries up and down the trunk of the world-tree Yggdrasil, carrying malicious gossip and insults back and forth between the dragon Níðhöggr, who sits at the bottom of the tree gnawing on its roots, and the hawk Veðrfölnir, who sits at the top of the tree keeping watch.
A western gray squirrel eating pine seeds from a pine cone. Squirrel nests are called dreys and can be seen in trees, built from sticks and leaves wrapped with long strands of grass. There are two stick nest types made by the western gray squirrel: the first is a large, round, covered shelter nest for winter use, birthing, and rearing young.
Eastern gray squirrels also use dens for protection from prey and helps them look after their young. Young survive 40 percent less if they lived in a leaf nest compared to a den. Squirrels tend to claim 2-3 dens at the same time. Canopy and midstory trees are used by squirrels to hide from predators such as hawks and owls.
Nests are also excavated from witches' broom – abnormally dense vegetative growth resulting from a rust disease – or cavities in the trunks of spruce, poplar, and walnut trees. American red squirrels rarely nest below ground. Each individual squirrel has several nests within its territory, and females with young move them between nests.
Northern flying squirrels generally nest in holes in trees, preferring large-diameter trunks and dead trees, and will also build outside leaf nests called dreys and will also nest underground. Tree cavities created by woodpeckers as suitable nest sites tend to be more abundant in old-growth forests , and so do the squirrels, though harvested ...
Squirrels eat a variety of nuts, berries, fruit, conifer tree cones, greens, and fungi. ©Dmitry Potashkin/iStock via Getty Images Squirrels are masters at storage and also deception.
The currently accepted scientific name for Abert's squirrel is Sciurus aberti Woodhouse, 1853. [4] Woodhouse had initially described the species as Sciurus dorsalis in 1852, but this name turned out to be preoccupied by Sciurus dorsalis Gray, 1849 (now a subspecies of variegated squirrel S. variegatoides), and thus the present species was renamed.