Two species of tropical flying squirrels have worked out that if they nibble grooves around nuts to store them between tree branches, they are preserved for longer.
Flying squirrels in China have developed a clever way to hide their nuts — chewing grooves in them so they can be stored between tree branches.
"Only these two flying squirrel [species] have this technique and no other squirrel species or animals are known to have this ability," Han Xu, professor of ecology at the Chinese Academy of Forestry in China, told Live Science. The findings were published June 13 in the journal eLife.To capture the unusual behavior, Han and his colleagues set up 32 infrared cameras across 13.5 acres of rainforest where they had found 151 nuts wedged between tree branches.
When the researchers checked on the stored nuts three and a half months later, they found the nuts had not germinated. As nuts stored in the ground typically germinate within two to three months, the team think the unique storage technique might help preserve the nuts for longer, said Xu. Other experts not involved in the study told Live Science the findings help shine a light on ways animals adapt to environmental challenges.—30,000-year-old fur ball hidden in Canadian permafrost is actually a mummified squirrelOther experts not involved in the study told Live Science the findings help shine a light on ways animals adapt to environmental challenges.
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