If you have
squirrels that live around your property, then
you have probably watched them spend their
spring, summer, and early fall months scurrying
around your yard or the neighborhood gathering
up as many nuts and berries as they can to
prepare for winter. It is the annual ritual that
these rodents go through each year, where they
gather up food that can be all year long, and
store them in specific locations all around the
area to prepare themselves for winter.
You may not be aware of this, but a squirrel
will actually have several different spots where
it is buried food. This is to ensure that if
something happens to their primary food supply,
usually located in the place where they are
going to spend the winter, then they have an
alternate location to go to retrieve food. A
squirrel is smart enough to consider that their
location where they intend to live a be
compromised in some way, and so it pays to have
alternate locations. To not do so could easily
lead to death.
The question then becomes due squirrels really
remember where they buried their nuts? After
all, these are not animals with an incredibly
large brain and they don’t have a computerized
system or a series of maps that displays where
their food is located, so how do they rediscover
where they buried their food?
First of all, they say that the easiest way to
learn something is through repetition. From the
squirrel standpoint that is exactly what they
do.
These animals spend seven or eight months
bearing food at various locations around your
property or the neighborhood in which you live
in. They have likely returned to those spots at
least a dozen times if not dozens of times. It
has become ingrained into their brains exactly
where they went to very their food, and so
relocating it is not difficult for them to do it
all. They have been there many times and so they
know how to return.
Now, you may question that if there is a large
amount of snow that has fallen are they still
able to find every one of their locations. Snow
changes the terrain and makes things
significantly different looking than when the
squirrel was actually bearing its food. How is
it located in this case?
The answer to that question is that sometimes it
doesn’t. If the conditions around the area have
drastically changed so that things don’t look
enough like they did before, then the squirrel
may have challenges in finding its food. This is
especially true if one of its burial spots is
being used as a location for snow to be piled
up. They not only can’t locate it but, even if
they did, they would be unable to reach it
because of the massive pile of snow.
However, the vast majority of the time they are
still able to locate where they buried their
food. This keeps them well fed during the long
winter months.
Read more:
Squirrel
Control,
How
to Get Rid of Squirrels,
how
to get squirrels out of your attic,
Squirrel
Feces,
How
to Keep Squirrels Away from House,
How
to Kill Squirrels.
