Clever Squirrel Hides Food for Winter

Squirrels spend autumn stashing nuts away for winter when food is abundant. They scrape a small hole in soft earth and bury their prize, patting the soil down on top to hide it from birds.

Squirrels use a combination of clues to find their nuts again later. The caching is not random. A particular place will have been chosen – under a big oak, for example – and remembered. Several squirrels may also use the same patch, which increases the probability that they will find stored nuts simply by chance.

When a squirrel returns weeks later, it peers at the ground, looking for disturbed soil and sniffing to detect a nutty smell. This multi-sense inspection focuses digging on the spots most likely to yield a nut. Any that are missed develop into new trees, benefiting future generations.