Tamiasciurus hudsonicus
(Red Squirrel)
© Christine Hanrahan (Photo ID #16408)
Photographer's Submitted Details
Photo Location
Fletcher Wildlife Garden, Ottawa
Photographer
Christine Hanrahan
Habitat
Photo Date
Upload Date
April 04, 2012
Elevation (m)
Latitude
Longitude
Photo ID #
16408
Comments
This big pile of Norway Spruce cones has been carefully gathered and stored by a red squirrel. It is beneath the spruce tree, and the squirrel will run up and nip off the cones so they fall to the ground. Every so often, the squirrel runs down and moves them to the base of the tree. In time, a large cache is accumulated and this must see him through the winter. Grey (black) squirrels bury their food, a nut here, a nut there, rather than creating such big deposits (biologists call this "scatter hoarding"). Reds will also lodge a cone or an apple, a nut, or some other food, in the fork of a tree, or lay it across the branches too. But primarily, they create this sort of food cache.