How smart are squirrels?

Squirrels are actually very smart animals. They generally won't eat poison if you lay it down for them. They also won't go into a trap if it is in the slightest bit suspicious of it. That's why exclusion devices and one-way doors are the best method for getting rid of a squirrel problem - trapping / caging them proves almost impossible. Although they are smart, humans are smarter, and that's what gives you the advantage over these slippery little devils. Squirrels have been known to have "fake" piles and stores of food to try and deceive predators and enemies out in the wild. Essentially, they're deceptively smart. Bearing this in mind, squirrels are not an animal to be taken lightly. If you have one (or a few) in your home, getting rid of it won't be an easy task. It will require home-maintenance and inspections, as well as some hard graft. It will also take some patience. Time too. If these are things you do not have, don't waste your time on remedies and things that don't work, call in the professionals to do the job. They have the right tools for the job, and the right knowledge too. When you're up against a smart creature like the squirrel, you need all the help you can get your hands on!



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An animal's intelligence cannot be gauged the way we gauge humans. A human being can be given a test to see how they respond to the questions given thus helping in rating how smart they are. However for animals one should look at other factors like how an animal adapts to its environments and how it gets food and the tricks they use to survive during harsh weather conditions.

Squirrels are really smart animals. They may not talk but one can tell by how they try coming up with a solution to every situation that they are put in. A lot of people look at animals in terms of human intelligence however there are other traits that one can use. When they sense that they are in a dangerous situation they use their tails as a way to tell their fellows to find refuge.

That is something not unless you are a researcher studying on animal behavior you would not understand. When they sense danger they first become motionless for a while as they study their surrounding and if an opportunity presents itself they move their tails to alert the rest. How they respond to a dangerous situation also depends on where they live.

Those that live on top of a tree if they sense danger on the ground they climb onto the nearest tree for safety. The ones that live underground rush to the nearest open hole since they have no time to burrow afresh. In other cases these animals can mislead their hunters by using a different path in their escape plan meaning one never finds out where they live.

Just like human beings plan ahead for cold seasons by buying warm clothes and shoes squirrels living in such areas have a plan. They need to know how to survive during such seasons thus they sore their food in advance. They keep seeds, nuts and other edible items they will require during winter at different locations so that when the food gets scarce they have something to feed on.

During winter seasons every other animal is looking for food and that is where the squirrel's intelligence is displayed. What they do is that they have two storage areas. The real storage area where only the specific squirrels that hide knows and a fake storage area. In the fake location they stash some foods just for display to deceive other animals that might be planning on stealing their food.

It means that those animals who expect to automatically get food when times get hard focus on digging from the wrong location as the squirrel is enjoying the best somewhere else. They keep enough seeds and nuts to sustain them throughout the winter season and that means you will need a brain big enough to reason in that manner and that type of intelligence is mainly associated with humans.

Squirrels can be termed as animals who plan ahead and are always prepared. That is the reason in some religions like Hinduism it is among the scared animals as it is considered to have helped a certain god build a bridge. Something else that makes them smart especially the tree dwelling ones is the fact that they build similar nests to those of the birds as a confusing trick to their predators.


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