The backyard rodent that accidentally plants thousands of trees
This backyard rodent accidentally plants thousands of trees every year.
Which one is REALLY true about the Squirrel?
The short version
The gray squirrel buries thousands of nuts each autumn and forgets a huge number of them, which sprout into new trees — so one squirrel can plant thousands of oaks over its life. It also fake-buries nuts to fool thieves, and can rotate its back ankles 180 degrees to run headfirst down a tree.
Why it's so weird
- ✓The Squirrel buries thousands of nuts every autumn to survive the winter.
- ✓The Squirrel forgets where a huge number of its buried nuts are hidden.
- ✓The Squirrel plants thousands of oaks and other trees over its life, without ever trying to.
- ✓The Squirrel fake-buries nuts in empty holes to fool watching thieves.
- ✓The Squirrel can rotate its back ankles a full 180 degrees to run down a tree headfirst.
You could line up about 4 of them along a 7-year-old!
The full story
This common backyard animal is secretly one of the greatest tree planters on Earth. Meet the gray squirrel, a rodent that spends every autumn burying thousands of nuts to survive the winter. The trick is, it forgets where a huge number of them are. Those forgotten nuts quietly sprout into new trees, meaning a single squirrel can plant thousands of oaks and other trees over its lifetime, without ever trying to. But squirrels are also little con artists. If one thinks it is being watched by a thief, it will dig a hole and pretend to bury a nut, then sneak off and hide the real one somewhere else. They can even rotate their back ankles a full one hundred and eighty degrees, letting them run straight down a tree headfirst. Clever, sneaky, and quietly reforesting the planet. Follow for more weird animal facts.
Squirrels are "scatter-hoarders": each autumn they bury nuts one at a time in hundreds of separate spots, then find them again using a strong memory of the landscape plus a very sharp sense of smell. But their memory isn't perfect, and rival squirrels steal some, so they never dig up a large share of what they buried. Every acorn they miss is already sitting planted at the right depth in the soil, so it can sprout into a seedling. The forest grows because the squirrel forgot, not because it ever meant to plant a tree.
📚 Source: Why Do Squirrels Bury Nuts? (and other mysteries) — Smithsonian Science Education Center ↗Studies of squirrel caching (including a University of Richmond study cited by the Smithsonian) report that squirrels fail to recover a large share of the nuts they bury — reportedly up to about three-quarters — leaving plenty of viable acorns behind to sprout into oaks.
📚 Source: Why Do Squirrels Bury Nuts? (and other mysteries) — Smithsonian Science Education Center ↗Watch the 45-second version
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“The Squirrel buries thousands of nuts every autumn to survive the winter.”
“The Squirrel can find, identify, and swallow prey in about 8 milliseconds, making it the fastest-eating mammal on Earth.”
“The Squirrel forgets where a huge number of its buried nuts are hidden.”