The short documentary captures several species of squirrels and talks about how each

species uses their evolved skill to survive. One of the few squirrels that were mentioned were
the Eurasian red squirrel – a rare breed now, but was once widespread across Europe, Asia,
Siberia. However, the 75% that remains are found in Scotland. The documentary looks over a
young squirrel, Billy, and his development from a close eyed little pup, to a grown adult
squirrel.

The documentary mentioned tree squirrels and ground squirrels. Tree squirrels have
nests that are made of bark, moss, twigs, and leaves, and the nest is used to keep their litters
warm for the first 3 months. Ground squirrels, on the other hand, live in burrows, and pups
won’t go above ground until six weeks. This is a very instinctive, primary tool against
predators. The one predator that this however, cannot protect them from, is the pacific rattle
snake. The snake uses infrared sensors of warm-blooded preys to detect them. However, the
ground squirrel – as a defense mechanism – provokes the snake to hear the frequency and
speed of the rattle, allowing it to know how big, and how aggressive the snake is. The
squirrel then pumps extra blood into her tail repeatedly, not just for temperature regulation,
but to also allow the extra heat to be sensed by the snake, and also to allow her to look
bigger. This increases her chance at survival and is used as a mechanism for defense.

We also see that as young Billy grow, his grip grows. Their grip is very important, as
it’s used to hang on to trees. The grip however, is very impressive, and is even used to be
studied to build robots based on squirrels and their agility and speed. Replicating their grip
could be used in robotics. At seven weeks, a playmate Annie is introduced to allow young
Billy to interact with his species more, as interacting with families allows the squirrels to
learn a lot.

Another species that was mentioned was the Malabar Giant squirrel, which can be
found in the jungles of India. They’re one of the largest and most colorful squirrels. They
hang upside down while they eat by using their grips, and to run down trees head first. They
have an unusual ankle joint which allows them to constantly grip no matter which direction
they’re climbing.

The prairie dog, a species of ground squirrel lives in colonies in towns in north
America. Living in colonies means more eyes to keep on look out. When they see a predator,
they use a complex language to warn the rest of the colony. The language can also be
translated to identify the kind of predator as well. As they are slightly bigger, they survive on
a plant-based diet – this is because they don’t need much energy to keep warm and can
survive on a less nutritious diet. Smaller squirrels, however, need more energy. Their teeth
never stop growing – this is to overcome the continuous chomping, as their teeth can grow up
to 8 inches a year.

The winter is a real challenge for squirrels. There isn’t much food, and it’s cold,
which means the squirrels need more energy to keep warm. In Alaska, the arctic ground
squirrels live three feet underground. In the winter, it drops its heart rate and survives on
stored fat. It can handle the coldest temperature of any mammal. Scientists say this is possible
as every 2-3 weeks they shiver to warm themselves back to 97 degrees. This temporary
warmth allows them to live through the spring.

On the contrary, the chipmunks of North America, are small in size, and cannot store
enough fat for the winter for energy. The second they wake up, they feed. These chipmunks
gather nuts throughout autumn and stockpile them. Their flexible cheek pouches allow them
to hold 7 nuts at a time. These hoard of nuts however, must be defended to get through the
winter.

Tree squirrels bury each nut, and this strategy is called scatter hoarding, made to
avoid pilfering. Scientist Michael Delgado concocted an experiment to find out what happens
to the nut once they’re buried. She makes a tiny hole in each nut and inserts a microchip. The
squirrels do a series of things to assess the nut, even a head flick to make the decision on
whether or not the nut is good enough to bury. Michael then scans the site to get the exact
location of each nut. She buried about 300 nuts, and the experiment resulted in only a 10%
that were forgotten. Another hypothesis on the 10% that were forgotten was that the nuts may
have just been left because the nuts were not needed.

In comparison to the squirrels that Michael Delgado was studying, fox squirrels bury
about ten thousand nuts a year. Meaning roughly nine thousand nuts are eaten. Lucia Jacob at
Berkeley speaks about how this species is special as they are scatter hoarders. Their brain
size is bigger in size than a ground squirrel. This is because living in trees is a much more
complicated environment, therefore the larger brain. These tree squirrels have bigger brains
in the fall because they have a huge mental map of where these nuts are hidden. In the spring,
they reduce back to its normal size.

Grey squirrels – one of the smartest squirrels on Earth, were tested by Douglas
Parker, a squirrel fanatic. He uses a simple set up to demonstrate how smart the grey squirrels
are, by combining problem solving with physical abilities. The set up consists of red and blue
disks – the red disks are wobbly, and the blue are stable. The grey squirrels must leap across
a series of the disks to get to the hazelnuts. The results from this experiment shows that the
squirrels developed a pattern with the disks – stepping only once on the wobbly red disks,
and 2 steps to stabilize back on the stable blue disks. This shows their grip, persistence,
memory, and problem-solving skills.

At 8 weeks, Billy is sent out to a different environment to adapt to the jungle. The set
up consists of branches wide out, to allow Billy to learn how to leap. This allows them to
jump without going down to the ground and saves energy. This brought on an experiment in
New York by Greg burn, who analyzes the mechanics of the leap. This experiment showed
that squirrels have bigger leg muscles, like an elastic band that allows them increase leap
distance by 5-10%. The bend in their legs and allows them to focus on the target. They
reduce landing force by landing on all four feet – and bending their legs allows them to
reduce impact. Their leap can equate to a human jumping up to 2 bus lengths.

The last species talked about was the Northern flying squirrel which can leap up to
150 feet. They have wings that allow them to glide along the canopy, a form of aeronautical
engineering. Between their wrists and ankles, they have the patagium and uropatagium that
forms the wings. They also have wing tips that reduces drag and increases stability. Their
speed goes up to 20 miles per hour.