A squirrel holds an acorn in her mouth in this pen drawing as she decides where the best spot to bury it is.
The season to cache acorns is upon us, and some might need a review on how to properly bury these orbs of protein. The following is a tutorial for squirrels and curious folks who would like to know how to bury an acorn.
Step 1: Select the perfect acorn. The earlier you start, the choosier you can be. Feel the acorn in your mouth and test the weight in your paws. Do your best to avoid acorns with holes, cracks, and sprouts.
Step 2: Find a spot to bury the acorn. Look for landmarks to use as memory aids for when you might want to dig up the acorn later. Also make sure no prying eyes are watching your movements. In order to trick potential thieves, pretend to bury the acorn using the next two steps, and then scamper away and bury it elsewhere.
Step 3: Dig a shallow hole and place the acorn inside.
Step 4: Cover the acorn up with dirt and grass. Make the area look natural by fluffing up the grass again. Casually placing a leaf on top is also a nice touch. The area should look as unsuspecting as possible.
And that is it. By following these four easy steps, you can successfully bury acorns all over the place and have a bountiful supply during the upcoming winter season.
Squirrels take such care in caching food for later, and over the years, I have observed that squirrels have a system for it. Outlined here are some of the regular steps that I have noticed they take. My favorite step just might be the last one, when they make the area in which they had just buried an acorn as natural as possible, as if no acorn-burying has taken place in the area.
Watch some squirrels and see what their process is. Do they follow these steps? Skip steps? Add steps? Of course variations occur. One common step, however, that I did not include above is having plenty of snack breaks.