Japanese Squirrel Relocates Cached Walnuts One after Another in Early Winter

A Japanese squirrel (Sciurus lis, family Sciuridae) was scurrying around under a giant tree of Japanese walnut (Juglans mandshurica var. sachalinensis, family Juglandaceae) on the mountainside in early winter. The squirrel dug out the buried walnuts one by one from underground (under leaf litter) and relocated them to new caching sites. Finally, the busy squirrel found the feeder box filled with stinky seeds of ginkgo tree (aka maidenhair tree; Ginkgo biloba, family Ginkgoaceae) on the way. But the squirrel didn’t eat nor carry away the unfamiliar ginkgo seeds. Captured with my old trailcam in the cloudy midmorning (around 8:20 AM) of early-December 2024 in Japan. During long winter, the squirrel feeds on the cached food. But some of the cached walnuts would be forgotten and germinate in spring. In this way, the Japanese squirrel contributes to the seed dispersal of Japanese walnut trees. (symbiosis) For a full story (text in Japanese); https://sigma-nature-vlog.blogspot.com/2026/03/blog-post_194.html