56 POINT LOBOS RESERVE 



One word — pines — is enough to characterize the habitat of the gray 

 squirrel at Point Lobos. Squirrels are found all through the pine woods 

 and none is seen far from a pine tree. In these trees all the essential needs 

 of this animal are fulfilled. The branches provide safe refuge from ground 

 prowling predators; also in the tops of the trees are support and materials 

 for the nests. 



Dependence of the squirrels upon the seeds of the pines for food is close, 

 although they are not restricted to this one source. Squirrels carrying fresh 

 cones, held at the base with the small end pointed forward, are seen often, 

 both on the ground and in the trees. Many times it is necessary for squirrels, 

 in getting access to the cones out on the limbs, to cut off obstructing small 

 branches and stems, which fall to the ground, making a conspicuous litter. 

 They do not strip the bark, but make a clean cut. The greatest amount of 

 this cutting seems to occur in mid-April. They also feed on the upper part 

 of the large toadstools which are abundant during the rainy season. Another 

 food source for gray squirrels in the Reserve is the acorn crop on the 

 live oak trees. They crawl sometimes to the very tips of some of the outer- 

 most branches, and there they hang head downward, holding on only with 

 their hind feet. Having cut an acorn off with its incisors, a squirrel will 

 back up or turn around to reach a more secure position. The acorn is then 

 transferred to its forefeet and the squirrel proceeds to hull and eat it. 



Gray squirrels can go all through the woods without coming to the 

 ground, following along familiar overhead ways without hesitation, jump- 

 ing across the interval between branches of adjacent treetops as high as 

 fifty feet up. 



Responses of gray squirrels to the near presence of humans varies widely. 

 Usually they retreat to safety, but sometimes they protest loudly by bark- 

 ing and sometimes by rapping on the wood with their forefeet. One gray 

 squirrel observed came directly to a person who sat stock-still with his 

 back against a pine trunk at the edge of Mound Meadow. The squirrel 

 climbed onto his knee, looked him in the eye for about two seconds, then 

 without any appearance of sudden alarm, took a course without haste 

 back into the woods. 



Pocket Gopher 



On approximately one-third of the land at Point Lobos pocket gophers 

 play the predominant part in modifying the physical character of the upper 

 soil as well as in affecting the plant life and, less directly, the animal life 

 there. They avoid three general types of ground: (1) the forest where 

 there are few small roots; (2) the wet, soggy ground, where they cannot 

 keep dry; (3) the oldest, longest established grassland, where, possibly, 

 the sod is composed of roots too fibrous to be suitable as gopher food. The 

 abundance of herbaceous plants with thick stems and roots provides ample 

 food. Salt grass, occurring in patches in Mound Meadow, is preferred 

 provender of the pocket gopher. 



An estimate of the average number within the Reserve during a year in 

 which they were closely observed (1984-35) was about one" thousand. A 



The friendly Beechey ground 



squirrel is one of the more numerous mammals 



to be found at Point Lobos 



