Squirrels Trivia for Kids
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49 free Squirrels Trivia for Kids trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This squirrels trivia for kids is a fun, easy quiz for players aged around 8 to 12 who like watching the squirrels in the park. It covers what makes a squirrel a squirrel (the family that also includes chipmunks, prairie dogs, marmots and groundhogs), how they climb down trees head first, why their front teeth never stop growing, how gray squirrels bury thousands of nuts a year and find them again, what a drey is, how flying squirrels glide, and the surprising discovery that some of them glow pink under ultraviolet light. There are the record holders too: the tiniest squirrel that weighs less than a mouse, the biggest that is longer than a child is tall, and the colourful giant squirrel of India. The last stretch is about famous squirrels: Scrat and his acorn, Sandy Cheeks, Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Squirrel Nutkin, Secret Squirrel, Squirrel Girl, Chip 'n' Dale, Punxsutawney Phil and Ratatoskr from Norse myth. Every answer comes with a short explanation that adds one more fact. Nothing needs a science textbook, and it works well in a classroom or at a nature center. Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which child do Willy Wonka's nut-sorting squirrels throw down the rubbish chute?
Veruca Salt
Veruca Salt. She marches in to grab a squirrel for a pet, but the animals pin her down, judge her a 'bad nut' and send her down the chute.
Q 02The word 'squirrel' comes from the Greek 'skiouros', usually explained as meaning what?
Shadow tail
Shadow tail. The Greek name joins skia, shadow, and oura, tail, perhaps because a squirrel sitting up to eat seems to shade itself with its own bushy tail.
Q 03Squirrels live wild on most continents, but which one had none until people brought them?
Australia
Australia. Its look-alike possums only resemble flying squirrels: they are marsupials, more closely related to kangaroos than to any squirrel.
Q 04Which squirrel is the world's smallest, only about 13 centimetres from nose to tail tip?
The African pygmy
The African pygmy. Unlike most squirrels it never stores food: it forages non-stop, running along rainforest branches upside down as easily as the right way up.
Q 05A gray squirrel that thinks it is being watched may do what with a nut?
Pretend to bury it
Pretend to bury it. The squirrel digs a hole, mimes dropping the nut in and covers the empty spot, with the nut still tucked in its mouth to hide somewhere else.
Q 06Unlike most mammals, tree squirrels can climb down a tree in what way?
Head first
Head first. Their ankles swivel right round, so the back claws point up the trunk and hook into the bark like climbing spikes.
Q 07A squirrel's big front teeth, its incisors, do what?
Grow throughout its life
Grow throughout its life. Hard enamel on the front and softer dentine behind mean that gnawing grinds each tooth into a chisel edge that keeps itself sharp.
Q 08Squirrels mostly eat seeds and nuts, but many will also eat what?
Insects
Insects. Squirrels are not strict vegetarians: when food runs short they turn hunter and will raid nests for birds' eggs and even chicks.
Q 09The Nutty Narrows in Longview, Washington, was built in 1963 so squirrels could do what?
Cross a busy road safely
Cross a busy road safely. A local builder found a dead squirrel with a nut still in its mouth, so he and his friends strung a 60-foot bridge of aluminium and old fire hose above the traffic.
Q 10Two kinds of flying squirrel carve grooves into nuts so they can do what?
Wedge them tightly between twigs
Wedge them tightly between twigs. The groove grips a forked twig like a carpenter's joint, and the nuts hang well away from the tree that dropped them, where other animals are less likely to look.
Q 11What becomes of many nuts that gray squirrels bury and never dig up?
They grow into trees
They grow into trees. Squirrels even try to prevent it: before burying the kind of oak seed that sprouts quickly, they bite out its embryo so that it cannot grow.
Q 12How do gray squirrels find the nuts they buried months earlier?
Sharp memory for landmarks
Sharp memory for landmarks. Smell helps at close range, but squirrels raid one another's stores, so knowing exactly where its own nuts lie is what keeps a squirrel fed.
Q 13A squirrel's leafy nest built in the fork of a tree is called what?
A drey
Q 21Flying squirrels are mostly active at what time?
Night
Night. Because they come out only after dark, few people ever see one, even in forests where they are common.
Q 22Chipmunks carry food back to their burrows in what?
Cheek pouches
Cheek pouches. Rather than fattening up for winter, a chipmunk stocks an underground larder and wakes now and then to snack from it.
Q 23Only one chipmunk species lives wild outside North America; which region is it named after?
Siberia
Siberia. The Siberian chipmunk ranges from Russia to Korea and northern Japan, and escaped pets have since founded wild colonies in Europe.
A drey. Squirrels usually keep several at once and move between them, so a nest that gets damaged or disturbed is never their only home.
Q 14Gray squirrels flick their tails and make a 'kuk' call to do what?
Warn others about a predator
Warn others about a predator. The alarm is meant for the hunter too: once a stalking cat hears it, it gives up, knowing it has lost the element of surprise.
Q 15In Britain, the eastern gray squirrel has largely pushed out which native squirrel?
Red
Red. Grays are bigger and carry squirrelpox, a virus that leaves them unharmed but is usually fatal to the native squirrels they meet.
Q 16Which winter feature marks out Europe's native squirrel from the gray squirrel, which never has it?
Tufted ears
Tufted ears. Colour alone can fool you, because the native squirrel's winter coat is often tinged with grey, but a gray squirrel never grows ear tufts.
Q 17The chickaree, a small tree squirrel of North America's northern forests, mostly eats the seeds of what?
Conifer cones
Conifer cones. It stockpiles them in one big hoard and guards that patch of forest all year, chasing off any intruder that comes close.
Q 18Which is the largest tree squirrel native to North America?
Fox
Fox. It can top a kilogram, and people have since released it in western cities such as Los Angeles, far outside its native range.
Q 19How do flying squirrels move from tree to tree?
They glide on a furry skin flap
They glide on a furry skin flap. Small leg movements steer the glide, and just before landing the squirrel pulls upward so that all four feet meet the trunk together.
Q 20Scientists found by chance that North American flying squirrels glow which colour under ultraviolet light?
Pink
Pink. All three North American species glow while ordinary squirrels stay dark, and chemists who tested their coats found nothing in them that plain squirrel hair lacks, so the cause is still a puzzle.
Q 24A groundhog is a large ground squirrel also known by which other name?
Woodchuck
Woodchuck. The name has nothing to do with wood or chucking: settlers bent an Algonquian word into something that sounded English.
Q 25Groundhogs fatten up all summer because they spend the winter doing what?
Hibernating in a burrow
Hibernating in a burrow. Males wake before the females do, so that they can stake out territories and start looking for mates.
Q 26On Groundhog Day, if the groundhog sees its shadow, what is supposed to happen?
Six more weeks of winter
Six more weeks of winter. German settlers brought the belief to America, but back in Germany the animal doing the forecasting was usually a badger.
Q 27Punxsutawney Phil, the most famous weather-forecasting groundhog, lives in which state?
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania. His handlers insist he has never been wrong, yet the records show his forecasts come true less than 40 percent of the time.
Q 28Prairie dogs live in huge underground colonies that are known as what?
Towns
Towns. Inside one, members of a family greet each other with a 'kiss', a nuzzle they never offer to prairie dogs from other families.
Q 29Which members of the squirrel family are the heaviest and largest?
Marmots
Marmots. When one spots danger it gives a sharp, piercing whistle that sends the whole colony running for cover.
Q 30The Malabar giant squirrel, famous for its bright multi-coloured coat, lives only in which country?
India
India. It rarely comes down from the treetops, crossing the gaps between trees with leaps of six metres.