Gray squirrels were on both slopes of the San Gabriels in oak woodland.
A gray squirrel was observed in April of 1948, as it climbed a telephone
pole adjacent to an orange grove near Cucamonga. This, and one noted
bounding up a slope of greasewood chaparral near Cattle Canyon, were the
only gray squirrels seen in areas which were not grown to oaks or
adjacent to oak woodland. In the lower foothills gray squirrels were
invariably found in association with valley oak, this plant forming
limited woodland areas in canyon bottoms. In the upper chaparral
association the squirrels frequented the large scrub oaks growing on
talus slopes and canyon sides. In the yellow pine woodland, gray
squirrels are restricted to black oaks, often where they formed mixed
stands with the conifers. On the interior slope these squirrels were
found only at the lower edge of the yellow pine woodland where black
oaks are common. There, in the vicinity of Big Pines, they were present
between roughly 5800 and 7000 feet, while on the Pacific slope they
inhabited oak woodland from 1600 feet to about 7000 feet elevation.
In Live Oak Canyon in December of 1950, tracks indicated that a bobcat
had killed a gray squirrel in a small draw beneath the oaks. In Evey
Canyon on March 6, 1951, while watching for bats at late twilight, I
observed a gray squirrel traveling through the branches of a nearby oak.
A great horned owl glided into the oak in an attempt to catch the
squirrel, which leaped quickly into a dense mass of foliage and escaped.
For roughly ten minutes the owl perched in the oak watching its intended
prey, then flew off down the canyon amid frantic scolding by the
squirrel.
On March 17, 1951, a female gray squirrel taken at about 3500 feet
elevation in San Antonio Canyon contained two embryos, each roughly 40
millimeters long.
=Spermophilus beecheyi beecheyi= (Richardson)