How Can I Protect My Potted Plants From Squirrels
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If yous're living in or visiting Indiana in the autumn, every once in a while, you might get lucky enough to see a squirrel eat or bury an acorn. This made us wonder: Why exercise squirrels like acorns so much? We answer this squirrely question with help from ScienceDaily.
This fourth dimension of yr, a squirrel'southward main diet consists of nuts, seeds and, of course, acorns. If they're non busy consuming the acorns, the tree-climbing critters are decorated storing them for their winter food supply.
Peter Smallwood, associate professor of biology at the Academy of Richmond, explains in ScienceDaily that for a squirrel, "the acorn is a bundle of energy that can be easily opened and eaten in less than one-half the fourth dimension needed for other, harder nuts or stored for utilize months subsequently."
All the same, information technology's of import to note that not all acorns are created equal. Merely like you lot and I don't always agree on a favorite flavor of ice foam, not all squirrels adopt the aforementioned acorns.
At that place are 32 species of oaks across eastern North America, but squirrels simply eat and hoard certain types. Professor Smallwood and Michael Steele, associate professor of biology at Wilkes Academy, have institute that squirrels eat 85 per centum of white oak acorns shortly subsequently discovery and store near 60 percent of the acorns of crimson oaks.
The professors attribute this to the fact that red oak acorns contain larger amounts of tannins than the white oak acorns. Tannin is a bitter-tasting chemical that works to protect the acorn from insects and animals, similar squirrels. So rather than eat the red oak acorns, they store them.
But what happens if those silly squirrels forget where their stockpile is? Somewhen, the acorns sprout new trees. Not merely is a squirrel'south liking for acorns essential for its own nutrition and survival, but it is also essential for regeneration of oak forests. But think: Next time you encounter a squirrel gathering acorns for the winter, yous'll now know it is too planting seeds for future forests.
Go along up the adept work, squirrels!
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Source: https://www.childrensmuseum.org/blog/why-do-squirrels-like-acorns
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