3 lessons from a squirrel +1 extra

Squirrels are a lowly rodent to some people, but to admirers they are high flying acrobats, fuzzy tailed philosophers, scampering tree huggers, and resourceful survivors. (The are also awfully cute!)

Here are 3 (+1 extra!) life lessons we can learn from our squirrel friends.

1.  We all know the easy one: to save for the future! The smart squirrel saves for his future. Did you know that he breaks the nutshell with his teeth and cleans it by licking or rubbing it on his face? This activity applies his scent to the nut, marking it as “MINE,” and helps him find his buried treasure months later.

2. We can learn to adapt and adjust as they do, individually and collectively. There are 285 species of squirrels worldwide, and they live in habitats ranging from South American’s tropical forests to Africa’s semiarid deserts (not counting your backyard!) 

• They even learn how to handle life upside down.
• They learn how to be flexible and reach for that limb that at first looks impossible.
• They learn how to have back up plans, to have more than one escape route. They even build more than one nest so if a predator or the weather tears down one nest, they have a back up plan.

2. They are good stewards of our earth. Did you know that they help clean up and continue the life cycle of a forest?

• They eat a great many things (bark, plants, insects, nuts, leaves, roots and seeds) that help out the environment of the forest.
• They help replant the forest when they are not able to relocate those seeds and nuts that they hid.

3. They teach us to pace our lives, to live in the rhythm of the seasons.

• During the spring they normally get up near sunrise to get their food, build their nest and raise their young.
• During the summer months most squirrels begin to slow down and take a siesta in the afternoon, then return to getting food and playing.
• During the winter, they usually get up near sunrise, work until noon time and spend the rest of the day resting and conserving heat.

And for the +1 extra…

Here’s something I didn’t know and maybe you didn’t either!

Scientists from University of California Berkeley recently wondered how exactly squirrels accomplished the life-sustaining feat of gathering enough nuts to last through the winter, including the improbable act of finding each tiny hoard weeks after it’s created.

What they discovered was pretty impressive. Squirrels use “chunking.” Chunking refers to the practice of sorting information into similar, easily remembered groupings.

Just like when we learn a new phone number, we don’t memorize an uninterrupted series of 10 numbers,we learn the three-digit area code, the three-digit exchange and then the last four digits.

In the study, 45 squirrels were offered a series of nuts from a central location. The little rodents put the goodies into species-specific groupings: almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, and walnuts. This suggests, the scientists concluded, that finding the nuts weeks or months later in snow-covered forests, that they used a technique like chunking to recall where each pile (or species) of nut was hidden.

Who knew? Not me!

So…

• are you strong,
• are you intelligent,
• and/or are you adaptable?

We can all take a lesson from our furry friends!

Can YOU pick out a personal life lesson from these?