| By :
Alison Withers
Copyright (c) 2010 Alison Withers If we were totally dependent on the seasons and had to make sure we had enough food to last us during the cold winter and early spring outside the growing seasons what would life be like? Squirrels are the obvious example from the animal kingdom because they need to survive when their natural food supplies are not plentiful. Depending on the species, they have different ways of dealing with this problem. Tree squirrels gather food and hide it in several places near their nests, to be eaten later. Before winter comes, they fatten themselves up by eating a lot, and they grow a thicker fur coat. When winter comes, they keep warm in their nest, and mostly rely on their hidden stash of food for nourishment. Squirrels mostly eat plant foods, including nuts and seeds and they need foods rich in protein, fat and carbohydrates because they cannot digest cellulose and regions like the UK, early spring is their hardest time of year. Their buried nuts have begun to sprout by that time and there are no new available sources of food. Ground squirrels dig complicated tunnel and room systems underground with separate rooms for food storage, bathroom and sleeping use. They store food in their underground caverns for use when the weather is cold and food is less available. Like tree squirrels they eat a lot when there is plenty of food so that they can gain body fat to keep them warm in the winter, when they sleep a lot and rely on their stored food for nourishment. The grey squirrel does not hibernate and it cannot store enough energy to survive for long periods without food. They bury stores of single nuts in the ground in autumn well spread out and then find them by smell, which means often they do not find the food they have stored. Although humans, too, used to have to manage food supplies for the winters before the arrival of the fridge and the supermarket, fortunately we no longer have to spend so much attention and energy on storing enough food for the winter. We do, however, share with squirrels the habit of collecting and accumulating a lot of propertt and that means we need places for storage. As modern homes are more compact than older houses this can be a problem, whether a collection is a lifetime of treasured family memories in the form of photographs or a child's accumulation of treasured toys that they've grown out of but can't bear to part with. Then there are the family heirlooms that can't be got rid of but can't fit into the available space and the times when decorating or home renovation means clearing out a room or two if only for a short time. The solution is flexible self-storage increasingly being offered by self-store facilities now available in most towns. Rental of space is possible for short periods of time and the area can vary from a small box for that photograph collection to lockable units large enough for the contents of a family home. Unlike some squirrels, also, we are not likely to forget where we have stored our collections!!
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