Nests game? How real estate in the forest helps red squirrels to thrive

In the Yukon red squirrel world, being a man is all about your forest property.

A new study published in Letter of ecology The red squirrels of North America observe that young males who nest in the empty nests of a thriving squirrel will have 50% more puppies than other red squirrels. They live longer too.

Essentially, a young adolescent squirrel stumbling on a nest of trees with accumulated food like white spruce cones seeds will behave better than its counterparts.

"It's like buying a house and finding a big pile of money buried in the walls," said Dr. Andrew McAdam in a press release. McAdam is a professor of Integrative Biology at the University of Guelph and participated in the study.

Lead author of the study, David Fisher, a former postdoctoral researcher at the University of Guelph, explains that the most interesting of the red squirrels in North America is that they are the only squirrels that store food that way. Other squirrels, such as grays, that are commonly found in urban parks, usually hide their food at different locations in and around their place of residence.

How do squirrels find these houses full of food? Fisher said it was probably not a "nesting game". It's more of a legacy than a battle.

Generally, a red squirrel dies, leaving the nest filled with food and ready for the next occupant. Sometimes, the females leave the nest ready for their offspring.

However, Fisher said the researchers are trying to determine the characteristics of a red squirrel that cause him to claim a nest above other squirrels.

Fisher says it's a bit like the squirrel version of a pantry. These food reserves can last up to 31 years; meaning that 13 different red squirrels can use a single nest during this time.

"Because of the way that red squirrels store their food, as in their personal pantry, we can pick them up and count them before putting them back in place," Fisher said. "Unlike most other animals, we can measure and estimate the number of calories and resources a red squirrel needs to survive in the winter."

Finding a nest filled with food can extend the life of a red squirrel and provide mating benefits. Researchers believe that red squirrels conserve their food in this way because of the Yukon's harsh winters and because they do not hibernate in the winter.

This new study is part of an ongoing research project of the Kluane Red Squirrel Project that began collecting information on red squirrels from North America to the Yukon in 1987.