While Dr. Jacobs' study found that the rate of a nut's deterioration seems to have little bearing on whether squirrels eat or bury nuts, some scientists disagree.

“The squirrels are normally waiting for you to put nuts out for them, but the woodpecker arrived first and had to protect its territory," Crawford, 59, said.

A squirrel day seems to consist primarily of burying and retrieving nuts. But upon closer observation, there's a little more to this.

Sometimes squirrels will even excavate and then rebury their nuts. This strikes Jacobs as a kind of geographic revision: “It’s not like they cache in September and then they have to remember ...

Squirrels will retrieve the nuts as soon as there are no other food sources around. So, if you see the scavengers out in full force this fall, just remember they're on a survival mission.