Friendly squirrels

This picture is of a gray tree squirrel that we have had at our house. It was brought to the zoo by a gal that had been raising it at home. Nicole thought it would be a neat outreach animal to use, so she accepted it and was in the process of having the squirrel getting used to human contact. But... we thought we should try to release it and see if the squirrel would like climbing trees. He didn't need much coaxing to go exploring in our backyard. The first day he spent 20 minutes, then 4 hours, then an overnight stay. After returning for milk and fodd after that, he spent one night inside and has been out ever since (5 weeks now). It is easy to tell that he's still used to Nicole, he's not to bashful if there is food involved.