🌰 Forgotten nuts and acorns grow into trees, so squirrel absentmindedness produces some ecological benefits. While it’s almost certain that squirrels indeed forget some subset of the nuts that they bury over a nut-burying season, it’s not clear whether these are truly forgotten or simply abandoned in favor of food that is easier to recover.⁠ ⁠ _____⁠ ⁠ 🐿️ Food storage is a serious business, and squirrels don’t bury nuts randomly. They are organized, and they carry out a plan. This plan comes in one of two forms. Some squirrel species stash their food in one place, likely making the stash easier to remember, but this is risky, especially if the single cache is discovered and eaten by another animal. Some squirrel species opt for a different strategy: they bury nuts in several spots across a general area.⁠ ⁠ These species appear to have developed a system to help them remember where these stashes are. It seems that squirrels are capable of "spatially chunking"—that is, placing nuts of ...