Fox Squirrel

The fox squirrel is the bigger, slower, more open-country cousin of the gray. Two and a half pounds at the high end, rusty-orange below with a heavy tail and substantial mass, fox squirrels prefer more open hardwood stands — pin-oak flats, open hickory groves, oak savannas, and the edges where mature timber breaks into pasture. They spend more time on the ground than grays do, which makes them easier to spot but also gives them a longer flush distance; a fox squirrel that sees you at 60 yards across an open bottom will be in its den hole before you raise a rifle. Hunters often take them incidentally during early-season deer scouting or alongside gray squirrels in mixed stands, but where they're abundant — the Midwest oak savannas, the southeastern coastal plain longleaf systems, the Texas post-oak country — they're the primary squirrel quarry. The eating is the same as gray but with more meat per animal. Several regional subspecies (Delmarva, big-cypress, Sherman's) are isolated and managed under separate rules; the Delmarva fox squirrel was federally listed and recovered. Hunters target only the widespread continental form.