i am writing this post primarily because its cold, I'm tired of you tube, it's cold, and I've built a question some might like to weigh in on.
earlier today I noticed a nut. a black walnut. it had been secreted in a failing wood joint, yet very exposed. a very hasty or perhaps interrupted stashing...presumably that of a squirrel. So, i have no claim to the treasure. i have no need of it. should i leave it, or move it? just to raise the squirrel aggravation factor of course. is that bad karma?
Unless you are planning on doing repairs, I vote leave it. Some squirrel will find it. Studies have shown that squirrels find about 90% of the nuts they hide.
They have better memories than I do.
@Organist1 Me too.
@MsKathleen I believe it there was a large UC Berkeley study that showed squirrels finding one's handed out and marked with location chips.
@Beowulfsfriend Please state that more clearly and provide a link to the study.
@MsKathleen honestly, I don't want to look it up. I've seen videos on the study, etc. You can believe what you want; squirrels aren't all that important to me at the moment. A couple years ago, I trained a few to come get peanuts from me. Then, I cared about how inventive they could be. I also watched them interact and saw a definite hierarchy - Old Gray Ears was on top. I moved; so now, they are someone else's problem.
@MsKathleen Beowulfsfriend is quite correct, indeed there is some debatable evidence that squirrel's brains grow larger in the Autumn to enable better memories. If so they may be one of the few mammals able to grow brain issue in later life.
@Fernapple @Beowulfsfriend I stay corrected. Apologies for my apparently misinformed opinion.