A Little Bit More
You’ve probably watched tree squirrels (the three most common are the Gray, Fox, and Red Squirrel) either bury nuts or dig them up. Even under a blanket of snow, squirrels are able to locate buried nuts using their keen sense of smell; there’s nothing random about a squirrel’s ability to locate its treasures.
During the summer, there is a wide variety of foods available to tree squirrels, such as mushrooms, insects, galls, birds’ eggs, fruits, even baby birds. But with the onset of winter, their choices are severely limited and stored food makes the difference between enough food and starvation over the winter months. Tree squirrels store large numbers of nuts, with acorns, beechnuts, and hickory nuts probably being the most important ones accumulated, although this varies with the geographic region they live in. In autumn, as the nuts ripen, there is a flurry of activity both in feeding and storage. Since mast (beechnuts and acorns) production varies from year to year and area to area, poor productivity in one area may cause those squirrels to search elsewhere in their quest for food.
Although squirrels have been credited with “planting” large numbers of trees, research has shown that they don’t leave as many uneaten nuts behind as one might think. Gray Squirrels have been shown to reclaim 85% of their cached nuts while Fox Squirrels may retrieve up to 99% of theirs! Their ability to locate their stored food is truly phenomenal.
Activities
Stratification
Objectives: Find and grow tree seeds
Materials: Tree Seeds, sphagnum moss or sand, zip-lock bags, refrigerator, potting soil and pots
This will take several months to complete, but will help all involved see a little more clearly what happens to seeds in nature each year. This activity works well with temperate (areas where there are seasons) trees. You may find that trees from sub-tropical or tropical areas can simply be planted without any intermediate process as they don’t need stratification – where you live will influence this activity.
1. Have your students look for and gather some tree seeds (acorns, hickory nuts, maple, pine seeds etc.) that can be brought in to class. Students can look on trees for seeds and/or on the ground beneath trees. Not all trees produce seeds in the fall but many do and these can be easily collected if you have access. If you collect seeds on the ground, you’ll be more likely to obtain mature seeds. Be sure students have permission to collect in any location that is not their property although almost no one will object to taking seeds if it is done respectfully.
2. As the seeds come in to class, try to arrange them together in groups based on their appearance. There are many different kinds of oaks, for instance, and they are often easy to differentiate based on the appearance of the acorn. You can separate the seeds out to whatever degree you wish.
3. Once you have “enough” seeds, place some moist (not wet) sphagnum moss or moist sand in zip lock bags and place the different kinds of seeds in separate bags. The moss or sand should come in contact with the seeds and will help to keep them from becoming too dry during the stratification process.
Stratification is a process growers use to simulate what happens in nature. Many seeds need a cold, dormant period approximately 4°C (36°F) or below during which time chemical changes take place within the seed that makes germination (sprouting) possible. Without this change in the seed, germination will not occur. Of course, in nature this happens naturally over the winter months in temperate areas.
4. Now place the sealed zip-lock bags in a refrigerator where they will remain for at least 8-10 weeks.
5. Once you’re ready, remove the seeds from their bags and plant in potting soil and place the pots in a warm area of your room. Room temperature should be more than adequate to “wake up” the seeds and initiate germination. Do keep in mind, that this process is not fool-proof and many things can go wrong – insects eat the seeds, the seeds weren’t viable when collected, the time in the frig wasn’t long enough or cold enough, etc. etc., so don’t expect all to germinate. But, any that do will be exciting to watch as they grow in your room.
6. Once you have some seedlings, you may want to experiment with them by placing some in an area of full sun, some in a darker area, keep some quite moist while others on the dry side.
If you have lots of seedlings, you’ll soon see that some are much more vigorous than others. This would be interesting to point out to students as they relate this to the fact that many, actually most, of the seeds in the wild never reach maturity. You might be able to generate some good questions about which plants do make it to maturity and why others might not.
Key Concepts
Growth and Development, Behavior and Regulation
Questions
Do you have a question for a naturalist? Go ahead and ask!
It's easy -- just fill out this form, submit your question and you'll receive an answer shortly.
Posted by Jo Haines on April 12, 2006 at 09:35 AM
Q: Is there a product that will stop skunks from eating the buds of the tulips?
A: I'm sure there are all kinds of products that are supposed to keep skunks from digging up bulbs. These kinds of products always sound good but usually have limited effectiveness. I think the most reliable way is to put some screening over the bulbs so the skunks can't dig into the area. Of course you'll need to have an opening for the leaves to emerge and have the screening secured to the soil so it can't be moved. Sorry, but I don't have any better recommendations. Good luck.
Posted by Helen Cummings on March 31, 2006 at 02:43 PM
Q: How do I keep Squirrels from taking my tulips?
A: I'm assuming that your tulip bulbs were dug up? Not nipped off? My first guess as to the culprit would be a skunk, not squirrels. Skunks are very active diggers and often find all kinds of "goodies" in lawns. But keeping skunks OR squirrels from digging your tulips would probably require the same action. There are all kinds of products on the market to keep animals away from plants but many/most are not very effective. All I can think of is to place screening around the plants as they emerge but you'll have to pin the screen down well or the animals will simply move that aside. I have the problem of deer eating my tulips at my house and have given up trying. If all else fails, try planting a different kind of plant - your local nursery should have ideas. Best of luck.
Posted by Deborah Jackson on November 03, 2005 at 04:38 PM
Q: Do squirrils eat daffodil or blubell bulbs?
A: I have daffodils at my home and lots and lots of squirrels but they don't seem to dig the bulbs up at all. Not sure about bluefells however. Do keep in mind that if food is scarce, squirrels may eat things they would normally avoid so probably very few foods are "off limits" to squirrels. You may want to check with your local nursery and they'll have some good ideas what kind of flowers are less likely to be disturbed by squirrels.
Thanks for asking.
Posted by Barb Mazzochi on March 10, 2005 at 04:43 PM
Q: Do squirrels eat tulip bulbs. Sometimes my tulip bulbs that are planted in the ground in the fall don't come up in the spring and I was wondering if it is because the squirrels eat them. Barb
A: To the best of my knowledge, squirrels don't eat tulip bulbs. There are all kinds of reasons a bulb might not send out a new plant in the spring so it would be difficult to determine which one it was. However, keep a close look at the areas where you know there are bulbs planted and see if there are some "excavations" going on there - that would be what you'd see if squirrels were digging them up. Good luck!