• Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    Squirrels don’t remember where they hide their nuts.

    They rely on heuristics to find them! (A fancy word that roughly means “it seems like something I’d do”)

    When trying to find nuts, they look at a spot and think “that would make a good place to hide a nut” so they go looking for one there.

    • LemmysMum@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      So it’s likely that squirrel nut collection/distribution is unintentionally more socialist than we give them credit for.

  • Maco1969@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The amount of acorns produced by oak trees varies from year to year, every few years they produce far more than the squirrel population can eat meaning many acorns are lost and can propagate. It’s called a mast year.