Squirrels Accurately Predict Bumper Harvests

New Scientist ^ | 12-21-2006 | Roxanne Khamsi

[pipecorp]

This is just nuts!

[rwgal]

The rodent with a nuts flush.....

Meadow Muffin

[Graybeard58]

"The animals produce an extra litter of pups months ahead of these unusually large harvests"

http://www.squirrels.org/faq.html#Q22

"They are called babies or infants while in the nest. Then for their first year they're referred to as Juveniles. After their first year, they become adults and are simply called squirrels."

I've never heard them called "pups"

[Rb ver. 2.0]

Yep, nuts.

[sissyjane]

Around here, squirrels just drive my dogs nuts!

[VOA]

Squirrels accurately predict bumper harvests

OK, it's a good trick, but can they forecast the NYSE and NASDAQ?
(/sarc)

[pipecorp]

I've never seen dog nuts with steering wheels.

[Leo Carpathian]

Squirrels can somehow predict which years trees will produce massive amounts of seed, a new study reveals.

Simple, they have better polling service than RATs.

[packrat35]

Time to get jiggy sweetheat. The harvest will be good this year.

[Bob]

The animals might also notice more of these cone buds in the spring ahead of the harvest and have an extra litter based on this visual cue.

Gee, ya think?? So much for these squirrels' "predictions".

[SuzyQue]

No, it's squirrelly.

[Paddlefish]

I bet it's due to their annual harvest dance!

[crz]

Ya know what the Squirrel said when he ran up a womans leg?


"No nuts, no limbs, its gonna be a long cold hard winter."

[southernerwithanattitude]

mmmmm, Squirrel dumplins mmmmmm.

[Unmarked Package]

"McAdam suspects that the animals might detect higher levels of certain hormones in the cone buds that appear on the trees a year before the large harvest."

Rather than "detecting" the hormone, perhaps a plant hormone present in the cone buds in greater concentration before a bumper harvest actually increases the reproductive fertility of the squirrels when ingested.

That's my wild theory and I'm sticking to it. Don't try to dissuade me with facts and data. :-)

[editor-surveyor]

"Squirrels can somehow predict which years trees will produce massive amounts of seed, a new study reveals. The animals produce an extra litter of pups months ahead of these unusually large harvests, researchers report."

Another nail in the lifeless corpse of evolutionism.

[APFel]

Baby squirrels? Huh. I usually hold them by the tip of their tails and swung them around like a Kreskin Crystal.

APf

[SmithL]

They actually harvest bumpers?

[trisham]

I guess squirrels are losers in the annual competition for the Darwin Award? :)