51°µÍø

February 2nd has thankfully come and gone, and with it all that nonsense about groundhogs and shadows and seasonal changes.

By now, most of us know that this obsession with Groundhog Day—for example, Shubenacadie Sam (Nova Scotia) and Wiarton Willie (Ontario) predicting whether or not we get six more weeks of winter—is simply a fun tradition, as opposed to providing any credible insights about climate.

However, that doesn’t mean we should entirely discredit the predictive power of rodents.

There is a furry prognosticator who’s the real deal: the female red squirrel.

Ever cheeky, instead of using her predictive powers to assist humans, the female red squirrel anticipates potential food shortages in one of her main food sources—spruce seeds. This ultimately allows her to increase the chances her young will survive.

Here’s how: knowing that having healthy offspring depends on having enough food to nourish her through pregnancy and nursing, female red squirrels will delay reproduction following years with low spruce cone production.

Instead, in those years she will time pregnancy and nursing to coincide with the production of food that only becomes available later in the breeding season (late June/early July), such as plentiful insects, berries, eggs and mushrooms, among many other things.

Conversely, in years with large cone crops, females pack away cones like crazy, then have their young earlier, in late May or June the following spring, knowing they have a good food stash. This is anticipatory behaviour—she is not simply reacting to her immediate circumstances.

Not impressed? While Sam and Willie may or may not show up for a camera op in early February, lady red squirrels are busy calculating cone production rates and managing their entire reproductive cycle, all the while avoiding the ratcheting talons of hawks, snapping maws of coyotes, and swift death from pine martens. They’ve got a lot going on.

I don’t mean to insult Sam and Willie. It takes a lot of work to rouse your body from a state of torpor, and I for one would love an early spring—as Sam predicted this year (but Willie did not, dammit!).

However, if I had to award a prize for the rodent with the best crystal ball, I’m giving it to the female red squirrel.

Yes, Ronda the red squirrel, you have my vote.

Niki Wilson
Special to the 51°µÍø