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bewell
1275 Posts |
 Posted - Nov 07 2007 : 11:59:32 AM
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I watched a squirrel holding an acorn in little paws, spinning the sphere expertly, first stripping its outer shell in a few nibbles, then eating the bare white core with quick teeny tiny bites. In the sunlight beaming from one side the shades of color across the squirrel's body and the tree's bark were clearly visible, and what struck me was the way they merged in a near-perfect chemoflage. The light and dark greys of the squirrel were mirrored exactly in the bark. Hints of brown around the squirrel's eyes were matched too. And even the deep black of the little eyes were reflected in deep shadowy crevasses. If not for the white of the acorn core and quick little motions, the squirrel would have been practically invisible. Suddenly, the squirrel sprang up the vertical surface of the tree, sure footed and stunningly fast.
The squirrel is wonderfully adapted to receive from the tree food, chemoflage and refuge. But the squirrel also gives something back, I was once told. The tree drops hundreds and thousands of acorns. They drop straight down. The squirrels carry the acorns to various hiding places and bury them for winter storage. And in doing so, the also plant future trees in places that the seeds would not go with gravity alone. Thus the squirrels propagate a healthy oat forest.
Witnessing it, I felt part of an ancient symbiosis.
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Anthem
1608 Posts |
Posted - Nov 07 2007 : 12:08:49 PM
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Beautiful post Bewell, I feel like I was there!  |
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squirrel and oak
