What do squirrels do in the fall? The industrious gatherers do not hibernate, but only hibernate. This means that in addition to harvesting fruit, they also need to hide it and then find it again later. For hard times, squirrels accumulate many different food depots, some of which simply serve as reserves.

Squirrel in autumn - very active

For many animals, autumn means harvest time. This also answers your question, what do squirrels do in the fall. In late summer, the small rodents already begin tirelessly with the harvest on the nut trees. Very popular in their food depots are hazelnuts and walnuts. You can support the rodents here very well by providing a feeding house with such nuts.

Nuts are not the only food

In addition to the various types of nuts, squirrels also collect acorns, beechnuts and seeds from various conifers such as spruce, larch and pine. The seeds are found in the cones on the trees. These are used by the small squirrels around the year.

Precaution is important for the rodents

Because squirrels do not hibernate like other animals, they must leave their hawks every day to forage for food. Many of the food sources are not available to them all year. This is where the food depots come into play.

The natural food resources are subject to strong fluctuations and are not the same in any year. As a result, this has a massive impact on the squirrel population. In years with little food you will also find few squirrels. This is different in good years. Even a late spring can affect the population of squirrels due to a shortage of food.

You can be helpful to the rodents here and ensure regular replenishment of food.

Remarkable search capabilities

Squirrels accumulate many different food depots. This has many advantages. On the one hand, some of the depots may not be found and on the other hand, some depots may not be accessible because they have been destroyed or otherwise besieged.

Most of their food deposits, which squirrels create in the fall, they also find again. They are helped in this by their extremely good sense of smell. They can sniff out nuts up to 30 cm under a blanket of snow and then dig them up. You can consider such deposits as life insurance for the rodents. For this reason, you should never deliberately destroy such a depot. In many cases the depots will only last for a few days, when foraging is not possible due to snow or wind.

How many nuts does the squirrel bunker in the fall?

In autumn, squirrels not infrequently hide up to 10,000 nuts in various depots. Most of them are also found again. In addition to the good sense of smell, the squirrel has particularly well-developed brain areas that store the hiding places. With a little luck, you can also observe that a squirrel digs up one of the depots, checks the quality of the nuts and then buries them again.

Not found nuts and seeds are not completely lost, because they serve another purpose. From them, over time, sprout new trees and bushes, which in turn serve as a source of food for the squirrels. Thus, piece by piece, a squirrel builds its own food resources. Last but not least, the squirrel thus plays an important ecological role in the cycle of nature.