Tina's sister lives in Roan Mountain, Tennessee — her property sits right next door to our mountain house. She was out cutting the yard, running the weed trimmer on the hill, when she stopped cold.
Biggest squirrel she'd ever seen. Reddish. Built different from the gray ones.
No picture, of course. There never is.
So I looked it up for them. What she described is a fox squirrel — nearly twice the size of a gray at up to 29 inches and 3 pounds, orange-red belly, tail fringed in rust instead of white, big blocky head. And it tracks: fox squirrels are common across Tennessee in mature oak and hickory woods, especially along the ridges. That's exactly the country up there.
How to Tell a Fox Squirrel from a Gray
Here's how to tell one from the gray squirrel raiding your bird feeder:
Belly: orange-red = fox squirrel. White = gray.
Tail edge: rust/orange fringe = fox. White fringe = gray.
Size: if it looks like a gray squirrel that spent a year at the gym, it's a fox.
Face: fox squirrels have a squarer profile, usually white on the nose.
A Few Things I Learned That I Can't Unlearn
The fox squirrel's bones are pink. The gray squirrel's are white.
Fox squirrels sleep in — they might not leave the nest until noon on a cold day, while the grays have been up since dawn.
They like the edges where woods meet fields, and they cover more ground on foot than gray squirrels do.
She didn't get the picture. But she did the important part — she stopped, looked, and noticed this one was different. Most people walk past a dozen squirrels a day without seeing a single one.
Keep your eyes up. And keep your phone ready.