Whether you’re walking through Des Moines city parks or exploring rural woodlots near the Mississippi River, you’re sharing Iowa’s landscape with seven distinct squirrel species.
These energetic mammals range from the familiar gray squirrel raiding your bird feeder to the rarely-seen nocturnal flying squirrel gliding through oak forests after dark.
Iowa’s mix of hardwood forests, agricultural lands, and urban green spaces creates ideal habitat for both tree-dwelling and ground-dwelling squirrels, each filling unique ecological roles from seed dispersal to soil aeration…