One Summer day I noticed this Western Gray Squirrel coming across a branch toward our picture window. As it got closer I noticed what looked like a large growth on its chest. I'm saying to myself, "What is on that poor squirrel's chest? Looks like a tumor. Could it be a baby clinging to the chest?" Hmm.........???
With a different visual angle, I say to myself, "WHAT???" I begin questioning the absurd probability that I've only seen female squirrels in my 59 years! That can't be!
Not only is this a male squirrel like I've never seen, but he's packing nuts as large as I've seen on large dogs!!! Kahuna, as we named him, has to straddle his package to the point it looks hard on his hips, and one has to worry for his safety, as he jumps though the tree branches! Off to the internet for research! The first thing I learned is that there are a variety of Gray Squirrels. There are Eastern Gray Squirrels, Western Gray Squirrels, Arizona ones, and Mexican ones. Researching how to tell a squirrel's gender led me on quite a chase. The article, "How to Tell a Male Gray Squirrel from a Female Squirrel", gave a method of trapping a squirrel, so a person could turn it over and look. The urinary opening is close to the anus on a female and further away on a male, just like a cat. No holding back on our indepth reporting! The next article, "The Differences in Male and Female Squirrels", says "only by turning them over can you see the physical differnces between male and female squirrels." There's a lesson in not believing everything you read! One more article reports that male and female squirrels look alike! Further research indeed confirms that male and female squirrels are not dimorphically different. Dimorphic is the new word I picked up in my research. It refers to the male and female squirrels having similar looks when it comes to size, weight, and coloration. Finally, on an "everything you want to know about squirrels" website, I found an explanation that seems to solve the mystery in part. Here is the website and an exerpt from it:
http://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/squirrels.html#breeding
"Although males may be sexually active all year round, they usually exhibit a redundant phase -- typically late autumn/winter -- during which there is testicular regression (i.e. the testes retract into the abdomen and the scrotum is empty). In Grey squirrels, testicular regression is very pronounced: the testes shrink from about 7g to 1g (86% reduction in size), while the paired bulbourethral glands reduce by about 70% and the prostate decreases by some 75%. During late winter, the testes grow into the scrotum and reach full size by the beginning of the breeding season."
Here's one more look! Even though I understand the technical description of this sexual cycle of male squirrels, there's still the unanswered question of why I've only seen one obviously male squirrel in my life. Seems I saw a slight reference to Western Gray Squirrels in regards to the obvious bulge. I've heard the phrase for a number of years that everything's bigger in Texas! Maybe retired life is giving me time to notice squirrel nuts! I don't know, but we report it all from out here on the road!!! :-)
