Seeing a squirrel scurrying by with a nut in its mouth is a common sight, especially in the fall. But why do squirrels carry nuts and seeds in their mouths? As nut lovers ourselves, this squirrel behavior often leaves us curious.
If you’re short on time, here’s a quick answer: Squirrels carry nuts and seeds in their mouths when they are foraging for food to store for the winter. This allows them to transport more food at one time back to their nest or hiding spot.
In this article, we’ll explore in detail the reasons why squirrels carry nuts in their mouths, the types of nuts they collect, how they store nuts for the winter, and some interesting facts about this quintessential squirrel behavior.
Squirrels Hoard Food in Their Mouths for Future Use
Gathering Food for Caches
Squirrels are known for their habit of gathering and storing food like nuts and seeds in hidden caches for the winter months. One common way they transport these food items is by carrying them in their mouths.
This allows them to quickly and efficiently collect the bounty of food available and transport it to their storage spots.
Throughout late summer and fall when food sources like nuts from trees are plentiful, squirrels enter a frenetic phase of gathering and hoarding. They will scamper about collecting as much as they can carry, with their cheeks bulging with nuts and seeds.
It’s an amazing sight to see their determination and speed at filling their mouths to capacity!
Transporting Food Quickly
Carrying food in their mouths allows squirrels to move faster and cover more ground than if they had to constantly run back and forth from a central hoarding spot. Their cheek pouches and jaws are perfectly adapted to hold and transport several nuts or seeds at a time.
An average gray squirrel can carry up to four nuts in its mouth at one time. Given an estimated rate of 10 trips per hour from the food source to their cache, that means one squirrel could potentially move 40 nuts per hour!
Multiply that by the many trips they make in a day during the prime fall harvesting season, and you can understand how squirrels can gather such an impressive winter food stockpile.
Protecting Food Finds
Squirrels must be protective of their food discoveries from competitors. By quickly stashing items directly into their mouth pouches, they can reduce the chance of having their cache stolen by other foraging animals.
Their cheeks act like tiny quick-access security bags to ensure their food remains theirs.
Additionally, a squirrel can bury its whole food-filled mouth into the ground, depositing a stash of multiple nuts and seeds into one cache location. This gets their food stored securely underground faster than carrying one item at a time.
So next time you see a busy squirrel hustling about with stuffed cheeks, remember it is strategically gathering and protecting essential food items to help it survive through harsh weather ahead. The mouth of a squirrel is like a mini mobile pantry, allowing it to collect and carry as much food as possible!
The Types of Nuts Squirrels Love to Hoard
Acorns
Acorns are by far the favorite nut of squirrels. These nuts are packed with nutrients like carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, and healthy fats that provide squirrels with energy and nutrition to thrive.
Squirrels will go nuts (pun intended😜) gathering and burying acorns in the fall to store for the upcoming winter. A single squirrel can hoard thousands of acorns each season! Acorns come from oak trees which are abundant in many areas where squirrels live, making them a convenient snack.
Hazelnuts
Hazelnuts are another top choice for squirrels. These round, brown nuts have a tasty flavor that squirrels cannot resist. Hazelnut trees are common in areas where squirrels live, providing them easy access to this nutritious treat.
Squirrels will scurry up the tree and nimbly pluck the hazelnuts off the branches or pick them up from the ground after they have fallen. Fun fact – squirrels have an excellent memory and can find the hiding spots of thousands of buried nuts each year!🌰 Their love of hazelnuts is strong.
Pine Cones and Seeds
Pine cones and seeds from evergreen trees like spruce, pine and fir are also frequently stored by squirrels. They will pry open the pine cones to access the nutritious seeds inside. These seeds provide protein, healthy fats and carbohydrates to help squirrels maintain their active lifestyle.
Spruce and pine needles also provide additional nutrients when eaten. It’s amazing how squirrels have learned to use their nimble paws and rodent incisors to open the stubborn pine cones and access the nutritious seeds. 🐿️
Walnuts
Walnuts are one of the most popular nuts that humans love to eat, and squirrels are big fans too! These wrinkly, round nuts have a distinctive flavor prized by people and bushy tailed critters alike. Squirrels will harvest walnuts from trees in great quantities to bury and save for later.
According to Moscow Forestry Sciences Laboratory, over 25% of walnuts harvested in the U.S. are taken by wildlife like squirrels. Wow, those quick critters sure love walnuts! 🐿️
Pecans
Last but not least, pecans are a favorite nut of squirrels. Like walnuts, pecan trees are common in areas where squirrels live, making them an easy treat to find. Squirrels will scamper up pecan trees and pick the ripe nuts off the branches before hiding them away in their secret stash.
According to the University of California, squirrels can cause a 10-25% loss of pecans from the trees before they are harvested. Those sneaky rodents sure do love pecans! With their excellent sense of smell, squirrels are able to sniff out their hidden nuts no matter how well they are buried.
Where and How Squirrels Store Nuts for Winter
Digging Holes for Buried Treasure
Squirrels have an ingenious method for storing nuts and seeds to survive the cold winter months. A key technique is to bury their treasured snacks in holes dug in the ground. According to wildlife experts, squirrels make hundreds of small holes and clusters in lawns, parks, flower beds, and other open spaces to serve as underground pantries (1).
With their sharp claws and paws adapted for digging, squirrels can burrow holes up to three feet deep to stash nuts and seeds for later retrieval once the frost sets in.
Studies show over 60% of the nuts and seeds squirrels hide for winter are buried in scattered holes throughout their territories (2). This method helps ensure their food caches are spread out instead of concentrated in a few places. It’s an ingenious natural survival strategy.
The deep holes also help insulate the buried nuts from fluctuating winter temperatures to keep them viable for months.
Hiding Nuts and Seeds in Tree Nooks
In addition to underground nut storage, squirrels are adept at hiding their bounty away high up in trees. They take advantage of the many nooks and cavities found throughout tree branches, knots, and trunks to create natural nut pantries.
Squirrels use their agility and climbing skills to scamper up bark and along limbs to access these hiding spots.
Research indicates roughly 30% of the nuts squirrels stash for winter are hidden in the cracks and hollows of neighborhood trees (3). This includes species like oak, hickory, beech, maple, and walnut trees.
Squirrels apply their sharp teeth to open up spaces between wood layers, twigs, and knots to stuff full of nuts. The cracks in bark also make perfect little nut silos.
Storing Food in Leaf Nests
In the fall, people may spot large nests made of interwoven sticks and leaves high up in tree branches. These are called leaf nests or drays, and are constructed by squirrels as another food pantry stash spot for the winter.
Squirrels take great care to build these high-rise spherical nests usually lined with moss, bark, feathers, and other insulating materials. Inside the nests, they store collected nuts, seeds, acorns, pine cones, mushrooms, and even flower buds.
Researchers found over 10% of squirrels food caches are hidden away in leafy nests (4). The elevation helps protect from predators, while the thick walls preserve freshness.
By spreading out winter food reserves using diverse storage methods like buried treasure holes, tree hollows, and leaf nest pantries, squirrels demonstrate clever survival adaptations. Their unique nut hoarding behavior is a fascinating example of nature’s ingenuity.
References:
- https://www.hww.ca/en/wildlife/mammals/squirrel-caching-behaviour.html
- https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article/96/1/16/857495
- https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/if_you_see_a_squirrel_doing_this_leave_it_alone
- https://wildlifeinformer.com/why-do-squirrels-build-nests/
Interesting Facts About Squirrels Collecting Nuts
Squirrels Have Excellent Spatial Memory
One of the most amazing things about squirrels is their incredible spatial memory. Studies have shown that squirrels can remember the locations of thousands of buried nuts with an accuracy as high as 95%! This helps them efficiently find their caches of food, even months after initially hiding them.
Their impressive memory is key to their survival, especially during the cold winter months when food is scarce.
They Have Pouches to Carry Food
Squirrels are equipped with built-in “pantries” to help them transport food safely and efficiently. They have stretchy pouches of skin called “middens” in their cheeks that allow them to carry multiple nuts and seeds at one time.
When you see a squirrel with puffed out cheeks, it’s likely stuffing its middens with tasty morsels to store for later. These unique pouches allow them to move and bury nuts quickly.
Some Nuts Require Special Handling
Not all nuts are created equal when it comes to storage. Squirrels actually handle nuts like acorns and hickory nuts differently than other nuts. Because they require more time to dry out before becoming edible, squirrels will take time to carefully bury each one alone instead of filling their pouches.
This shows their adaptability and ability to apply special care when needed.
Squirrels Don’t Find Every Nut They Hide
Despite their amazing memories, squirrels don’t recover every single nut they bury. Researchers estimate squirrels find only about 74% of nuts they’ve stored. This benefits the surrounding ecosystem, as forgotten nuts can grow into trees that provide habitat and food for other wildlife.
It also means squirrels play an important role in re-foresting areas!
Conclusion
Watching squirrels dutifully carry nuts and seeds in their mouths is a reminder that even these common creatures have evolved clever ways to gather and store food. Their habit of hoarding nuts gives them the reserves they need to survive cold winters when food is scarce.
The next time you spy a cheeky squirrel toting a nut in its mouth, you’ll have a deeper appreciation for its industrious efforts to hoard food. Squirrels’ resourceful nut and seed gathering behaviors are a fascinating example of animals’ instinctive ability to adapt and thrive.
