FIELD NOTES: Nuts for Now and Later
~ by Jim Eagleman
The noise on the roof is telling me that acorns are ripening and the fall mast crop is busily being harvested. Mast refers to the annual crop of naturally occurring fruits and nuts. It is further divided into soft mast fruits like dogwood berries, rose hips, sassafras, and persimmon; and hard mast like beech and hickory nuts, walnuts, and acorns. Together they provide food, nutrients, and protein for a variety of wildlife like deer, turkey, small game, all the rodents, woodpeckers, and many songbirds. The lipid-rich value of these fruits and nutmeats, as they are consumed now and into the winter, is significant.
This high fat diet coincides with the annual fall migration of many birds that require long distance fuel. Contrast this with the high sugar diet of summer berries of songbirds when they are more sedentary and on the nest. Without the annual mast crop, survival of Indiana wildlife, generally speaking, would be worse off. And both gray and fox squirrels— busy from dawn to dark— are the best examples of animals that capitalize and exploit the hard mast, as nuts are consumed now and stored for later.
Watch a squirrel and you will observe its busyness with its attention to detail and where nuts are falling. Nuts may be eaten on the spot. Look to see if its cheek pouches are stuffed and where it heads to next. Burying nuts for late fall and into winter is what we know squirrels do. They find them due to both smell and recall. The well-developed mammal brain has a better sense of a memory than what first thought. This fact and many others are due to research projects that help us understand the miracles and mysteries of the wonderful natural world around us.
You may have wondered how it is that many questions we have about animals are addressed? How have we come to know what we know about wildlife? They live secretly, remotely, and with no help from mankind. How is it that we have all this information? And is data ever upgraded and edited?
I can attest that the manpower, time, and effort to document animal activity and nature in general is conducted most likely by students. Students, both undergrad and graduate, provide a researcher or professor with information that is used to help delve into many mysteries. I know because years ago, I was one of these lowly students who worked for free, suffered immensely due to long hours, chilling temperatures, and poor working conditions, all for
44 Our Brown County • Nov./ Dec. 2018