Squirrels, according to zoologists, usually prefer to winter, settling in the hollows of tall trees or creating a rather large and warm nest - the so-called gayno. To weave it, the animals use twigs and twigs of various lengths and thicknesses.
Squirrel nests
The squirrel dwelling, which zoologists call "gayno", looks like a magpie's nest. It is a kind of bag with a slightly elongated shape, carefully twisted from twigs, grass and moss. The inside is also lined with moss, sometimes downy "decoration" is found.
Often on the outside of a squirrel dwelling there is a conical canopy that can reliably protect the "house" from strong gusts of wind and even rain.
Gayno squirrels usually form on rather tall trees, about half their height. According to zoologists, animals usually keep their home clean. At the same time, quite often squirrels arrange their dwellings in the hollows of trees, while the inner surfaces are also lined with "improvised materials" - grass, down and moss.
At the first sign of bad weather, squirrels try to quickly hide in their "nests". Having plugged the inlet and snugly covered with a fluffy tail, they curl up into balls, waiting out the bad weather. They can do this for quite a long time, since they make supplies in advance, carefully collecting, for example, mushroom caps. The animals nimbly string them on bare branches to dry them for winter.
Winter protein diet
Squirrels try to take care of the warm and satisfying winter in advance. In the autumn forest, you can often see how a jumping squirrel squeezes a bunch of nuts or berries in its teeth - animals are able to choose the fruits most suitable for harvesting.
The animals try to better hide the reserves in deep hollows, so that in winter they have something to eat.
According to zoologists, in winter, squirrels are also happy to eat seeds from cones of conifers. Sometimes in winter you can see how a squirrel, sitting high on a tree, holds a spruce or pine cone in its front legs, quickly gnawing seeds from it. In the most productive years, many spruce trees have real garlands of cones, so squirrels do not have problems with feeding. According to experts, in order to eat, the animal needs to gnaw seeds from 28 spruce or 380 pine cones, with each of which the protein straightens out for 2-3 minutes.
Squirrels in signs
Interestingly, several old Russian signs are associated with the behavior of squirrels. For example, if the animals were not visible in the forest, although the weather was pretty good, and the sky was clear, it was believed that severe frosts might come soon. And if someone unexpectedly meets a squirrel in the forest, this promises an acquaintance with a person who will later become a faithful friend. When a person saw squirrels, this could mean the birth of a child. To offend squirrels has always been regarded as a bad act that can bring trouble and illness to the one who harmed the forest animal.
