This observation began with a ruckus several houses down the street from my own. The commotion that was so loud that I could easily hear it inside my house.
Within just a few minutes, the melee had moved to my front yard. I stepped outside to investigate and was greeted by three Fox Squirrels chasing each other across my front porch. It appeared that what we had here was two male Fox Squirrels and one female squirrel engaged in some late December mating behavior.
I watched as they pursued each other through the bushes and trees in my yard and then into my neighbor’s yard. At that point, I decided to go back inside to retrieve a camera. When I returned I found that the squirrels had moved to the area between our two houses. From there they headed toward my backyard, so I cut through the house to meet them there.
Once in the backyard, I was able to take several minutes of video of this wild behavior. The squirrels were very agitated and were completely preoccupied by their activities. They paid me very little mind as they went about their pursuits. On at least one occasion I was afraid that they were going to climb up my leg as they chased each other around the yard.
The frantic activity wound down after about 15 minutes, as the squirrels went their separate ways. Afterwards, a lone Fox Squirrel climbed to the top of my fence and began calling to the others, possibly in hope of re-engaging them.