Interesting critter fact

Rob Keeble

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Location
GTA Ontario Canada
Well i got a great view from my home office of the trees around and the squirrels running about. When i get up to stretch my legs i spend a moment or two looking out the window.

So today i saw a red squirrel doing something i had not seen before. Would have likes a picture but i dont have a zoom camera.
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Initially i thought it was sniffing around on the tree like a dog would picking up cents of other dogs. But then i notice everywhere it was sniffing looked wet on the tree. I got the binoculars out and had a look and then i notice it was licking the tree. Its too late for this to be water as the snow here is shrinking slowly and trees are pretty dry now.

So i looked it up and would you know, the Red Squirrel is known to bite the bark of maple trees and let the sap run out. Then when the water has evaporated it goes and licks the maple syrup crystals off the bark. Its been known to seriously damage trees doing this.
Story has it that is how the first nation tribes discovered maple syrup so when their stash of nuts or whatever are used up and spring comes they have other means to survive.
 
Interesting. Clever little fellows.

The Indiana up where my folks grew up would get the sap out of the jackpine trees in the spring using a similar technique. Pretty sure the maple taists a whole lot better.
 
I had a gray squirrel do the same thing to my river birch at the old house.

Birch syrup is tasty but quite a bit stronger flavor than maple: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch_syrup

As a motivated youngster (although I'm pretty sure my folks shook their heads a lot at what I was motivated about) I tapped some trees in the back yard and tried to make some. After maybe two weeks of collecting and much reducing I think I got maybe a cup of syrup. My pigweed flour experiment has higher yields but wasn't as tasty.
 
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