Squirrels seem to realise that the trees have eyes. To protect their food from would-be thieves, the rodents put on a great show of 鈥渉iding鈥� non-existent nuts.
When squirrels have spare morsels they bury them, digging a separate hole for each tasty titbit. But up to 20 per cent of the time they are merely faking it, says Michael Steele of Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The squirrels act as if they are thrusting something into the pit, and the deception even extends to covering the fake cache with soil and leaves (Animal Behaviour, ).
Squirrels show fake-cacheing behaviour when they are being watched, even by humans, so Steele recruited a group of undergraduates who did their best to see where the squirrels actually deposited their food. Fake burials increased after the squirrels saw team members raiding their caches, suggesting, Steele says, an understanding of the intention to steal.
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Lisa Leaver at the University of Exeter in the UK says it is tempting to speculate that squirrels indeed have such a 鈥渢heory of mind鈥�, but that it is too early to tell. 鈥淭hey may just have learned through trial and error that certain behaviours protect their food from theft,鈥� she says.
Steele drew on work developed and conducted by Sylvia Halkin and colleagues at Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, Connecticut, US.
