If you’ve ever watched a squirrel gather and bury nuts in preparation for winter and assumed the flurry of activity was completely random, scientists at the University of California at Berkeley have discovered that there is a cognitive strategy behind all of that bushy-tailed toing and froing. It appears that squirrels have the ability to organize information about their winter food inventory using a memory device called “spatial chunking” which enables them to bury and retrieve nuts in scattered locations according to size, type, and even nutritional value. To ensure they find their carefully categorized nuts as they left them, these crafty critters have also mastered fake burying—or the squirrel spoof. By pretending to dig and cover storage holes while slyly hiding treasured nuts away from spying eyes, squirrels keep their crunchy cache safe from potential poachers.

However, even the most strategic squirrels lack perfect memory and about three-quarters of buried nuts are never retrieved. The good news is those forgotten nuts grow into trees which provide food and habitat that other animals also depend upon for survival. And when you ’ve enjoyed the shade of a mighty oak, hickory or walnut tree a squirrel may have had a paw in the planting. If you’d like to show your squirrel appreciation, there’s actually a day for that, January 21. In honor of forest generating squirrels, go nuts!

Daily desert trekking requires careful preparation. You need the right equipment to manage the scorching heat and shifting sands of a Sahara or Gobi—sunscreen, shades, wide-brimmed hat, and maybe a pair of scorpion-proof shin guards. Unless you are a camel of course and have adapted over millions of years to a harsh desert climate in which case your professional grade, built-in gear makes traveling long distances across sizzling sands a day at the beach. These humped members of the camelid family are equipped with two toes on each foot connected to broad, thick foot pads which spread out and grip the sand as they walk, and tough knee pads which prevent sand burns when kneeling. Camels also have desert-friendly facial features to protect them from blowing sand including bushy eyebrows, two rows of long eyelashes, a handy third eyelid, and nostrils that can close against pesky flying particles.

Unfussy herbivores, camels have a very hard palate and thick, leathery mouth lining making them capable of consuming any old prickly plant they come across. And because plants and water sources are typically few and far between in the desert, camels have evolved to go long periods of time without eating or drinking. However, those famous humps are not filled with H2O, or camel chow for that matter, but stored fat which is metabolized for energy between feedings. Camels also have specially coated nasal passages which enable them to extract moisture from the air helping to prevent dehydration. When they do happen upon a watering hole, camels are champion drinkers, slurping up to 30 gallons in under 15 minutes.

Whether these excellent examples of environmental adaptation have one hump or two depends upon where you find them. The domesticated dromedary has one hump and is native to North Africa and the Middle East. The domesticated two-humped Bactrian camel can be found primarily in Central Asia. A third, critically endangered species, and the only wild camel left on earth, the two-humped wild Bactrian makes its home in the Gobi desert of Central Asia.  Any camels on your giving list?  May we suggest some desert-strength, leathery-lip balm to soothe cactus crunching ouchies.

Before bears settle in for their very long winter’s nap, they need to make sure they have stored up enough fat to sustain them through an extended period of inactivity which can last anywhere from two to seven months, depending on den location. A bear preparing for the big snooze can eat for 20 hours straight and consume up to 20,000 calories worth of nuts, berries, insects, small mammals, and fish in one day. If you missed the live cams of fat-bear-week, you can see highlights from the 2018 all-you-can-eat-a-thon in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve.