Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/112475
Sarasota News Leader March 1, 2013 Contrary to popular belief, squirrels are not so dumb that they forget where they buried their food. They have excellent spatial memory for the locations of their caches and use landmarks to retrieve them. Squirrels will also pretend to bury their food if they feel that they are being watched. They do this by digging up the spots as they usually would and pretending to cache the acorns, while actually keeping the nuts hidden in their mouths. They then cover up the ���caches��� as if they had really buried the acorns. To understand squirrel holes (aeration) in man-made objects, let me add that squirrels practice good dental hygiene. As with many rodents, the squirrel���s teeth are also highly A Squirrel bites its arm fleas. File photo Page 106 specialized and designed for the kind of food he eats. He has two incisors in the upper jaw and two in the lower. (���Incisor��� comes from Latin ���to cut,��� as through nutshells and electrical insulation). These teeth never stop growing. Only constant use keeps them short and sharp. If a squirrel is deprived of hard nuts (or attic insulation) its teeth will grow to the point where it cannot eat and it will starve. That is why pet owners must have their pet squirrel���s teeth trimmed. And that is why you always see squirrels with something in their mouths; it is usually a nut being munched on, a body part being rid of fleas or a section of your new garden hose being aerated.