We all may need to put out extra feed.

Observers say state's squirrels are on the move

Byron Crawford

Kentucky may be witnessing the beginning of a rare migration of squirrels.

The unusually large number of squirrels being killed on highways and moving about on the ground in some areas could indicate the onset of a natural phenomenon that may occur only once in several decades.

Rough River outdoorsman and writer Mark Keller was astounded last week at the number of squirrels he found dead along a two-mile stretch of Dixie Highway near Fort Knox.

"From the Army tank at the bottom of the hill, near Muldraugh on (U.S.) 31W, to the light at the turnoff to Otter Creek, I counted 21 dead squirrels on the west side of the concrete divider and 51 on the east side," Keller said. "That's 72 squirrels in less than a two-mile stretch."

Jim Strader, host of WHAS Radio's Sunday-evening program "The Great Outdoors," has been getting calls about unusual squirrel movements for the past two weeks.

"There's a scarcity of nuts in many areas especially the late summer mast  and there's also a very high population of gray and fox squirrels due to the mild winters and super-abundant foods that we had the last two years," Strader said. "What I think we're seeing is a collision of those two things, causing the numbers of squirrels to have to forage out into new areas to find food."

Historical footnotes

Accounts of regional squirrel migrations may be found in some historical footnotes dating back more than 200 years.

Collins History of Kentucky devotes three brief sentences to "an astonishing emigration of squirrels" that took place from the vicinity of Kenton County, Ky., across the Ohio River in September 1801: "As many as 500 per day were killed as they crossed the river. A mild winter was prophesied from their moving northward."

The journals of Meriwether Lewis referenced a mid-September 1803 squirrel migration on the Ohio River between Wheeling, W.Va., and Marietta, Ohio, in which large numbers of squirrels were seen swimming north to south. The reasons were unclear to Lewis, since hickory nuts were plentiful on both sides of the Ohio.

In 1819, naturalist John Bachman described a migration band in Ohio that he said was 130 miles across. Smaller migrations were recorded in Missouri in 1947 and Arkansas in 1951.

John Morgan, small-game biologist with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, says that the department has only anecdotal evidence of former squirrel migrations in this state, and that he has never witnessed such an event.

Mass movements rare

The generally accepted term "squirrel migration" is a scientific misnomer because it suggests annual movements, when in fact such mass movements are rare, Morgan said. Based on information he is receiving from hunters and wildlife staff members, however, he believes such a phenomenon may occur in Kentucky during the coming weeks.

"Nine squirrels were observed swimming across a lake in southeastern Kentucky, which is highly unusual. And a traveler heading from Louisville to Leitchfield observed over 100 dead squirrels on the road, which certainly implies mass movement," Morgan said. "I got a report from the president of a sportsmen's club out around Land Between the Lakes that the last time they had noticed this type of squirrel movement was in 1968. So that gives you an idea of how rare this is."

The department says data from hunters is of special importance this year in keeping track of squirrel numbers. You can find hunter logs online at: www.fw.ky.gov.

Byron Crawford's column appears on the Metro page Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. You can reach him at (502) 582-4791 or e-mail him at bcrawford@courier-journal.com. You can also read his columns at www.courier-journal.com.