Right now I can see four squirrels working in the back yard. They hop from one spot to another, stop, sit up, maybe chew something, then hop to another spot. Often they dig. Once in a while they chase each other up and down a tree.

I call what they are doing work because they stick to it, never seem to take a break, and do it from first light until it’s too dark to see. Each squirrel seems to be working on its own, no teamwork, but never any real fights either.

I’m quite sure that they are not just snacking all day long, but actually thinking ahead, planning for the future so to speak. In the fall they take the things they find—seeds, nuts, dried crab apples, dried buts of mushroom—and bury them. They are putting these food items into storage, for the lean times to come. 

Wait, I just saw one of my backyard workers jump at a robin—shooing it away from a tasty morsel.

I know they are burying some of the stuff they collect because I find little divots all over the yard, and because every spring sunflowers sprout up in odd places (seeds taken from the bird feeder). One morning last winter I saw a dozen squirrels gathered underneath the feeder.

Why are there so many squirrels in this neighborhood? Could there be too many? One or more of them chewed a hole in the corner of my neighbor’s garage door, because, I assume, dog food was stored inside. Here in this house we found a big squirrel nest in the attic when we moved in. (I found their sneaky entrance holes and patched them up.)

Its a basic fact of ecology that a population of animals will keep expanding until the resources they are living off are used up. Then “survival of the fittest” kicks in.

I think the large population of squirrels in this neighborhood is the result the the great number of trees, including many oaks and walnuts, in all the yards and especially in the park across the street. Also a lot of bird feeders. Also a lack of predators. 

Actually, I should say small number of predators, because there’s Pax.  Pax, as we know, is a terrier, born and bred to hunt rodents. When he was younger he used to chase every squirrel he saw, and would sometimes catch one, which was a rather gruesome and unhappy ending for that animal. Survival of the fittest again—Pax catching the slowest ones, those not quick witted enough to know a dog is dangerous, or those just not fast enough to make it to the safety of a tree.

Are predators necessary and good? Aldo Leopold thinks so. His essay “Thinking Like a Mountain” in A Sand County Almanac. shows what happens when predators are wiped out. 

Pax isn’t mean and nasty, btw. He isn’t cruel, either. He’s just doing what comes naturally.

Did I say that the hard working squirrels in my back yard were thinking ahead and planning for the future? On second thought, I don’t think so. What I really think is that they are motivated by instinct. They have a feeling in their bones that if they don’t do all their collecting, hopping, and digging in the fall they won’t be around the following spring.