Can a Squirrel Kill a Coconut Tree?

Its Home Is Like a Castle

• A squirrel often scales a tree trunk quickly for safety reasons. Species collectively known as tree squirrels have elaborate tails and subtle coloring, unlike striped or spotted ground squirrels. Depending on the kind of tree, a squirrel gathers fronds, leaves and/or bark to form a nest in the tree's crevices or on branches and uses the nest for its newborns' care. Various kinds of trees provide shelter and food for a squirrel. The mammal forages during the day and uses trees at night to hide and rest until sunlight shines again, allowing it to see its surroundings so it can have safe passage to the ground below.

As if it Has a Shovel

• Instead of growing deeply vertically, the roots of a coconut tree spread horizontally, keeping them shallow. The roots anchor the tree and access soil moisture, oxygen and nutrients. Although a squirrel cannot kill a coconut tree, it may disturb some of the tree's roots as it digs into the ground in fall. Saving nuts and seeds for winter, a squirrel forms underground storage areas by such digging. The digging won't cause a problem for an established coconut tree, but some growth stunting may result in a newly transplanted coconut tree if the digging damages its roots.

It Doesn't Miss an Opportunity

• A tree squirrel is known for its foraging ability on the ground and in tree canopies. Often, small nuts on trees are stripped away by a hungry squirrel, limiting the remaining nut crop. Coconut fruits' 12-inch-wide diameter, however, makes them difficult for a squirrel to pull from the tree. Even if a squirrel could remove the fruits from the tree, the tree would not die. Coconut fruits naturally form in a tight cluster within the canopy. Fruits that fall from the tree are viable squirrel food supplies, however. If no immediate predator threat is present, a squirrel chews through a coconut fruit's husk and eats the internal portion beneath. Most coconut fruits that fall to the ground are too heavy for a squirrel to move. So a squirrel takes a risk of being attacked by predators if it feeds on a fruit in the open.

It May Seem Responsible

• A serious fungal infection, called Ganoderma butt rot, causes widespread decline and sometimes death in a coconut tree. Spores from the fungus Ganoderma zonatum first appear at the base of an affected tree's trunk, although the spores originate in soil. Because a squirrel may dig near and live in a coconut tree that died from the infection, it may appear that the squirrel spread the fungus that caused the tree's death. A tree's fibrous roots, however, infect the tree by transporting the fungus from soil to the tree's vascular system. Some squirrel damage on a coconut tree's trunk at the soil level may contribute to the tree's exposure to the fungus, but a squirrel does not directly kill a coconut tree. The fungus must travel within the tree and create internal damage in order for the tree to die. Remove a coconut tree exhibiting the disease because no cure exists.