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68 Comments
- mentaldingo, on 12/01/2008, -1/+18Obviously, the credit crunch is affecting oaks too.
- enantiodromia, on 12/01/2008, -1/+16its so nice the word "acorn" means the actual seed again, and not some political BS.
- DarkPrincess74, on 12/01/2008, -0/+14It seems to clear to me that a squirrel bailout is both necessary and needed now. It would be nuts not to do something.
- peaceninja, on 12/01/2008, -1/+15maybe if the squirrels would remember where they hide half their *****, they wouldnt be in this mess
- bieber, on 12/01/2008, -1/+14"Wouldn't' it make sense that nature reacted..."
No. Nature does not react to anything, because nature is not sentient. This acorn issue is no more a conscious act of nature than, say, fewer people using a road because it becomes clogged with traffic is. The "nature" that you're referring to is simply a lot of different organisms interacting with each other and trying to all serve their own interests - kronix2, on 12/01/2008, -1/+12"Wouldn't' it make sense that nature reacted to that by under-producing this year in an attempt to reduce the overpopulation?"
You've got it the wrong way round. Trees produce the same number of acorns regardless of the squirrel population, but a large squirrel population results in either dwindling nut supply - and therefore squirrel deaths - or lots of tasty squirrels for its natural predators, who themselves may then grow too large in number and eat up all the squirrels.
Or something like that. - jtotheoe, on 12/01/2008, -1/+11theyre hanging out with all those missing honey bees
- awtripp, on 12/01/2008, -2/+11If you're going to try and be funny you should at least get your facts right.
They registered fake people (Mickey Mouse, Curious George, Donald Duck, etc). That's it. No votes were harmed in the process of being dumb asses. - clintmaher, on 04/21/2009, -3/+12Was that a 'Naturist' without nuts?
- baldguy633, on 12/01/2008, -3/+9When I first read this, I got pissed and started to type something about the election being over...
Meh.. squirrels. - biggizon, on 12/01/2008, -0/+6First the CCD of the bees than this and global warming always becoming more real and I think we are probably going to see more of these kind og things in the future. I'm gonna sound a little crazy when I say this but it's possible the ***** up economy is somehow connected but that's crazy, or is it, we humans are of course a part of nature but this is just to massive.
And if true this must be some part of the natural course of the earth.
Everything I just said, I hope is just *****. DONT'T LISTEN TO ME - asgardshill, on 12/01/2008, -1/+6Must be a local problem (to Northern Virginia). There are tons of acorns here - every oak tree is lousy with them.
- xutopia, on 12/01/2008, -0/+5I thought it was acorny story but I was wrong!
- elhaf, on 12/01/2008, -1/+6It's the Republicans' fault. They were against ACORN from the start.
- DeathfireD, on 12/01/2008, -0/+5It's probably like our economy, when you flood it with bailout money the market only gets worse. In this case the trees probably over pollinated last year for some reason which probably cause them this year to not give off a lot of pollen or any at all. Next year everything will probably go back on track. If not then it's probably a global warming issue.
- o0joshua0o, on 12/01/2008, -0/+5Just when you thought the economy couldn't get any worse...
- sjbdallas, on 12/01/2008, -1/+5i'm more interested in why the naturist stuff and mounted a squirrel head. Although I like how he put a nut in it's mouth to make is seem more natural.
- Seapheous, on 12/01/2008, -0/+4Where are all the acorns? Wisconsin... Not sure about other parts of the country, but we had a huge crop this year. I have seen bad years, and this year (at least in Wisconsin) is not one of them...
- bluebirdgm, on 12/01/2008, -4/+8That's just nuts.
- zdiggler, on 12/01/2008, -0/+3We got a tons of acorns up here in NH/VT this year. I was working under oak tree over fall and whole place was carpeted with acorns and they were falling on my head.
- martyFREEDOM, on 12/01/2008, -0/+3I have noticed the squirrels have been very aggressive around my house this year, I suppose this explains it. We bought two new garbage cans earlier this summer, and after 2 days there were holes eaten into both of them all over the place, a few times I caught a squirrel chewing at them trying to get to the garbage.
- VitriolAndAngst, on 12/01/2008, -0/+3"No. Nature does not react that way..."
Do these people actually KNOW nature personally, or is it just sound more official that way?
Nature does indeed, evolve and adapt. I notice here in the SouthEast, that a lot of pines only put out pine cones every other year. 17 Year Locusts make it a long wait for predators. Even in the ocean, corals schedule their release of reproductive seed at the same time -- one huge meal doesn't help predators populations grow large.
It would take time for trees to adapt to large squirrel populations. It could also be weather related. Or there might be a feed-back loop that allows a tree to detect how much of its seeds get eaten and respond. It is an interesting question and not one I could dismiss right away. The trees roots are right below where it drops seeds. So, if it produces X amount of acorns, it can detect of X-Y of them survived by what gets released into the soil. If there are no sprouts after a lot have been released, the tree might have adapted to skipping a year. - xLSDx, on 12/01/2008, -1/+4All part of the squirrels' plan...
1. Collect nuts
2. ???
3. Profit!! - carbonetc, on 12/01/2008, -2/+4I feel bad about being lazy refilling the bird feeder now.
- o0joshua0o, on 12/01/2008, -1/+3Evolution isn't out to achieve an objective. Natural selection just weeds out whichever organisms don't happen to be well-suited to that particular environment. It's not trying to create some kind of super squirrel.
- cyrusuncc, on 12/01/2008, -2/+4Scrat got to them first
- icStatic, on 12/01/2008, -1/+3They've been super-seeded.
- nibble4bits, on 12/01/2008, -0/+2Obliterated by confused Joe Six Pack Republicans??
- TannerC, on 12/01/2008, -0/+2Looks like squirrels are having economy troubles as well.
- sc0tty0, on 12/01/2008, -0/+2I live in the NC mtns. and we had an abundance of acorns and the others this year.
- knute5, on 12/01/2008, -0/+2Blame Fox News.
- ShnowDoggie, on 12/02/2008, -0/+2I live in Washington DC. I have had to move my car because of the number of acorns falling on it. (~ 4 weeks ago ) So there are some places around DC with lots of acorns. I have not really noticed the massive shortage.
- Djustme, on 12/01/2008, -0/+2I and my daughter noticed it in September, we we're looking for Acorns for our pet squirrel (Dexter). None! We have been buying him chestnuts @ $3:99 a pound. We have 14 pounds for now to try and make it through the winter. I also bought hazel nuts and peanuts. We also give him fruit and he just usually takes whatever we're eating right out of our hands, if he likes it, it's his.. He's the fattest Squirrel I've ever seen. Now I know why we have had Squirrels hanging off our windows looking in, he's inside eating and their outside starving and cold. I'll have to go buy some chestnuts for them now...
He's well fed. I'm glad I have some what of an answer to the acorn mystery though! We have been going nuts (no pun intended) looking for 3 months now for his favorite food, well, until he found out there's chestnuts at the store...
Before anyone asks, we found him in a cats mouth when he was just a baby a year ago August, full of fleas and very thirsty and hungry. He could only eat baby food for 4 months. I love the little guy but, he's taking the house apart and my 5 cats and Pit-bull are afraid of him! So am I sometimes, he's a grabby little bugger! - VitriolAndAngst, on 12/01/2008, -0/+2Not necessarily.
Plants are adapted to their environments.
A lot of N3 Plants need a cool night to convert solar rays to carbohydrates. So a hot house doesn't help all plants equally.
But I don't think that is the issue here. - kronix2, on 12/01/2008, -1/+3This is one of the best squirrel-based analogies for the sinking economy I've ever seen on Digg.
- inactive, on 12/01/2008, -1/+2Great! Now we're going to have to deal with famine-resistant super squirrels!
- BorsKaegel, on 12/01/2008, -0/+1We have several Water Oaks in our backyard here in central 'Bama and they produced acorns this year. I literally walk on a bed of them in my backyard going from the house to our storage shed.
- havesometea, on 12/02/2008, -0/+1I moved into a home about 10 years ago with a giant oak in the front yard. Some years we would get a small amount of acorns and some years the acorns would literally cover the grass in the front yard. There is no pattern to it that I can determine as it appears to be completely random.
- sjbdallas, on 12/01/2008, -8/+9Seems to me that nature has it's own way of dealing with things. The article stated that there was an abundance of squirrels and things because of the boom of nuts last year. Wouldn't' it make sense that nature reacted to that by under-producing this year in an attempt to reduce the overpopulation? I feel bad for starving squirrels as much as the next guy but naturists going out and feeding them does 2 things: first it teaches them to rely on the magic swaths of peanut butter with peanuts stuck to it instead of seeking food on their own, and it undoes whatever nature is trying to do by starving them out.
- Remelox, on 12/02/2008, -0/+1Actually, one thing interesting about locusts is that there are other locusts with different year cycles. There are seven and 13 year locusts. I don't know whcih one cohabit the same areas but it makes the odds of them competing with each other extremely slim. The closest two compete every 91 years and all three every 1547. Seems to me a very good example of nature adapting in a way that almsot seems intelligent.
The problem I have with the tree feedback idea is there isn't a lot going on in tree biology. The effect would have to be based on their root system or maybe the leaves. A decrease in leaves would account for that in almost any plant. But for it to be the root system, the tree would probably have to react to their droppings. Not saying it isn't possible but seems very unlikely. - damndj, on 12/01/2008, -1/+2Oh I thought this was an election story.
- inactive, on 12/02/2008, -0/+1OMG - I don't think Live Oaks have been giving out acorns down here either (Miami, FL). I'll check in the morning. Why haven't I noticed before?
- p3ngwin, on 12/02/2008, -0/+1it's the mini-version of the apple stuck in a pig's moth :)
- Djustme, on 12/01/2008, -0/+1They do, I have one. That's a myth. He knows exactly where he hid them two days later... in my shoe!
- Djustme, on 12/01/2008, -0/+1I'm in Massachusetts. My Daughter and I have been trying to hunt acorns down since September..None!
We have a pet Squirrel (Dexter), we have to now buy him Chestnuts, Hazel nuts and peanuts at the store. I think he now loves Chestnuts more than acorns. I'm going to go and buy some for the little guys outside. They have to be put out in the morning though, Squirrels go to bed when the sun sets and wake about 7am. This should be a fun winter, feeding all the Squirrels around, not just one little pain in the butt that's ruining my house! We love him though... - Otto, on 12/01/2008, -1/+2Sigh. Acorn production is a local phenomenon, and it has to do with the levels of local oak flowering. Every year, some oaks don't get fertilized and guess what, they don't produce acorns. Local weather plays a huge role in this. While it's true that oaks can self-pollinate, they can't necessarily do it under all weather conditions. The fact that some Joe Local never noticed a year that didn't have acorns means nothing at all.
Just one more thing for the nuts (pun!) to pin on climate change or some such nonsense. - VitriolAndAngst, on 12/01/2008, -0/+1Well, all the gene modifications and pesticides the agro-business have been cooking up might have had an effect. We don't know, because it's one huge, giant experiment on planet earth without a control group. Maybe all the bees disappearing isn't the only weird thing that will take place. If the Eco-system is collapsing, then it will happen with small, hard to explain things first. Maybe there is a lack of pollinators, or maybe the disappearance of a nematode in the soil than we've never even bothered to look for.
Or, it could be some evolutionary adaptation that we just weren't aware of before, that trees use to reduce Squirrel populations. - Nudar, on 12/01/2008, -0/+1Global warming? If anything that would allow the trees to produce more acorns.
- ingernet, on 12/03/2008, -0/+1all these puns are making me squirrelly.
- carbonetc, on 12/01/2008, -3/+4It's like The Happening, but they're killing squirrels instead of people.
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