TIL squirrels plant like 50% of the trees in my neighborhood by accident

I was reading this article from the Arbor Day Foundation last night and it said gray squirrels bury thousands of acorns each fall but only find like 25% of them again. That means those little guys are basically unpaid foresters planting all the oaks I see around my backyard. I always thought trees just grew from wind or birds dropping seeds but nope, it's mostly squirrels forgetting where they hid their snacks. Kinda wild to think my whole block's shade is thanks to some forgetful rodents. Has anyone else looked into how much wildlife actually shapes the landscape around your house?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_sage17d ago

Wait have you ever watched a squirrel actually plant an oak tree? I saw one bury an acorn in my flower pot last spring and I was so annoyed at first but now there's a tiny oak sapling growing in there and I kind of love it. The crazy part is that they're not just planting oaks, I saw a study that said they also spread walnuts and hickories and even some berry bushes because they stash those seeds too. So basically my whole backyard ecosystem is just one giant squirrel buffet with a terrible memory system. Nature is literally running on lost to-do lists.

the_hayden16d agoMost Upvoted

Found a walnut tree growing in my fence line last year. Definitely a squirrel special.

sandra_moore3015d ago

Actually that Arbor Day Foundation article left out a big piece of the story. I saw a different study from some wildlife biologists at Purdue that said squirrels remember way more than we give them credit for, like 60 percent of their stashes, not 25 percent. They also found that squirrels will dig up and rebury acorns multiple times in a season, so the ones that actually sprout are often the rejects that got left behind because they were rotten or damaged. So it's less about cute forgetfulness and more about squirrels being picky eaters who toss the bad seeds aside. Plus a lot of those oak trees you see were probably there before the squirrels anyway, planted by old forests or even people a hundred years ago.