THE DOUGLAS SQUIRREL HARVESTS HIS CROP

Everywhere about Longmire Springs the Douglas Squirrels, familiar dwellers of the deep woods, are scampering about busily engaged in gathering a hoard of cones for the long winter ahead.

This harvest begins each fall with the White Pine cones (Pinus monticola) as these ripen first. These cones are six inches or more in length and it is very interesting to watch the small Douglas Squirrel handle them. Just in front of the Museum at Longmire is a pine tree in which these squirrels have been very busy. One squirrel, on climbing the tree, moved about over its top until he found a cone that was ripe or in a position to handle. After cutting the cone, if he wished to eat it, he carried it back to the limb's connection with the trunk. Here, in this more stable position, he balanced the cone over the limb with his front feet and then began removing the cone scales and eating the seeds from them one at a time. It took but a few minutes to entirely strip the axis of the cone of its scales. Others would cut the cones from the tree allowing them to drop to the ground and then they would be carried away to some point where they would be safely stored. These hoards, although they were some distance away, were rarely approached twice by the same route.

After the pine cones are harvested comes the harvest of the Noble and Amabalis Fir cones. These cones are never found on the ground except when the squirrels cut them down for they are large and stand erect in the topmost branches of the trees and, unlike other cone bearing trees, upon maturing disintegrate and scatter the cone scales upon the forest floor. Still later in the season comes the harvest of the principal cone crop -- from the tree after which this squirrel is named, the Douglas Fir, and it is this tree which furnishes his chief supply of food.