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Post by schoolmaster on Sept 24, 2012 7:52:04 GMT -5
My favorite squirrel woods is about 8 acres. We have taken 10-12 squirrels out of it every year for maybe 10 years. This seems to allow plenty of carry over to keep the squirrels at a healthy sustained population. This year due to the drought, The mast although plentiful is probably half to a third the size of past years. I am planning to take 5-6 more squirrels this year because I believe the food supply will be lower. I believe this will allow enough breeding stock to survive and keep the population numbers and health on par with other years. What do you think?
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Post by jamesaritchie on Sept 26, 2012 13:19:33 GMT -5
You should be able to take considerably more squirrels than you do, if there are as many mast trees as you say. But there's plenty of food to carry squirrels through the winter.
It varies from woods to woods, some have more mast trees than others, obviously, but we used to take up to five per acre year after year without harming the population. Squirrels can have several litters each year.
Low mast this year will peobably mean fewer squirrels in the are next year, simply because squirrels often skip a litter after a poor mast year, but your hunting won't be a deciding factor.
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Post by single_shooter on Oct 31, 2012 8:33:51 GMT -5
Not sure what you mean by dry season meaning less food....my front and back yards have so many acorns it looks like I carpeted them this year...last year there wasn't anywhere near this many acorns.
I am no expert on mast production of trees but I can tell you that I literally have a truckload of acorns in a very dry year. Te tree rats are about to discover that I live in this house...it is not their climbing tree or their chew toy as they seem to think these days.
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