Buried nuts would quickly rot in the tropical rainforests of Hainan Island, so flying squirrels have taught themselves carpentry instead
Life 1 December 2022
A nut with a groove chewed in a band around the centre and wedged in the fork of a tree branch in a tropical rainforest on Hainan Island, China
QinWenHao
Two species of flying squirrel living in the tropical rainforests of Hainan Island off China carve grooves around nuts so they can be wedged in the forks of twigs without falling out.
Suqin Fang at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China, says one one of these species may have learned the behaviour from watching the other, though this is hard to establish. …