Most squirrels are scatter hoarders: almost everyone's seen a squirrel bury a nut in a lawn. They bury their nuts all over their territory and remember the loc

Most squirrels are scatter hoarders: almost everyone's seen a squirrel bury a nut in a lawn. They bury their nuts all over their territory and remember the locations and retrieve them later. What you might not know, is that in old growth oak forests, most trees were accidentally planted by squirrels. The acorns that they forgot and didn't retrieve, sprouted and grew into oak trees. So the analogy of a squirrel as ruthless acquisitor is not quite apt, because their manner of caching their hoard actually helps to plant the next generation of trees. (Acorns do not sprout as well when the just fall to the ground.)