Squirrels save for the family’s future
By Susan Milius
Red squirrels about to start a family don’t exactly set aside nuts for college. Yet some females do hoard extra food to pass along to youngsters that have not yet been conceived.
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In northern Canadian forests, the red squirrels, Tamiasciurus hudsonicus, survive winters thanks to caches of fir cones. The animals nip the cones off trees just before they open and bury their treasures in a pile of debris, or a midden. This heap forms the center of a territory that a squirrel defends fiercely.