The sweet gum ball, the spiky fruit of the Liquidambar styraciflua tree, often leads people to wonder if squirrels consume them. Squirrels do not eat the tough, woody, outer capsule of the fruit itself. Instead, the eastern gray squirrel, the species most often seen interacting with these fruits, targets the numerous small seeds held within the sphere. This dense, golf ball-sized structure serves only as a protective container for the true prize, which is extracted through a selective and labor-intensive foraging process.
The Primary Target: Sweet Gum Seeds
The sweet gum ball is a compound fruit, a dry, globose structure approximately one to one-and-a-half inches in diameter, which is covered in sharp, woody spikes. This casing contains between 40 and 60 individual capsules, each holding one or two small, winged seeds. The seeds are quite small, measuring only about six millimeters in thickness, and are released as the fruit dries out and opens. A squirrel’s interaction is a highly focused effort to bypass the protective shell and access these tiny seeds. The animal systematically chews through the rigid exterior to reach the seed-bearing pockets, leaving behind shredded remains of the empty husk as evidence of the meal.
Nutritional Context: Why Seeds Are a Secondary Food Source
Sweet gum seeds provide a modest nutritional return compared to larger, oil-rich nuts, despite the effort involved in their extraction. While they are a source of protein and calories, the seeds are small, requiring the squirrel to process many capsules for a substantial meal. Consequently, they are categorized as an opportunistic or secondary food source in the overall diet of the eastern gray squirrel. Consumption increases significantly during the late fall and winter months, or in early spring. This occurs when preferred, high-fat mast crops, such as acorns and hickory nuts, are scarce, making the persistent sweet gum fruit a reliable survival food.
Squirrel Diet: Preferred Foods
The typical diet of the eastern gray squirrel is heavily focused on mast crops, which are the nuts, seeds, and fruits of woody plants. Squirrels prioritize foods that offer a high concentration of energy and fat for survival, especially during cold weather when they are unable to hibernate. These high-value items include acorns from various oak species, hickory nuts, walnuts, and beechnuts. If these primary food sources are available in abundance, the sweet gum ball is generally ignored by foraging squirrels. Beyond hard mast, squirrels also regularly consume tree buds and flowers in the spring, pine seeds, fungi, and various cultivated fruits and grains.