A gray squirrel offers a nice perspective on its incredibly bushy tail. I shot this one in the backyard, and squirrels around here have it pretty good. Feeders offer unshelled peanuts, all manner of other seeds, plenty of mast-bearing trees, and lots of good cover. Gray squirrel longevity probably increases in such suburban oases.
The longer one of these animals survives, the wiser it becomes, and the more likely it is to avoid detrimental factors such as predators. Gray squirrels can reach ten years of age or more in the wild, although such elders are surely rare. The animal in the photo did not reveal his age, but he/she looked fat and happy to me.
