Close-up view of an Eastern gray squirrel with a treasured food item in its mouth, pausing at the top of a weathered wooden handrail. There`s sort of a `now what?` implied: got it! eat it? hide it short term? save it long term? Squirrels often hoard food in numerous small caches and come back later to recover the food. Some caches are in fact extremely temporary, and may be retrieved within hours or days to be reburied in a more secure site. Squirrels will use deception if they feel they`re being watched; they`ll pretend to bury the object while actually keeping it in their mouths. They are smart, pesky, funny, cute and ecologically essential. However, as they are an incredibly prolific and adaptable species, they do often wind up in the wrong place at the wrong time and can be a significant environmental problem. Whatever the consequences may be of the bigger picture, this particular individual is pretty charming.
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