In Indiana, it does not take long to notice the little holes squirrels leave behind. They appear beneath oak trees, around flower beds, beside sidewalks, and sometimes right in the middle of a carefully maintained lawn. The strange part is that many of those holes seem to contain absolutely nothing, which can make the digging look pointless.
I used to think the same thing whenever I noticed fresh soil scattered around a yard. A squirrel would dig furiously for a few seconds, push its nose into the ground, move some dirt aside, and then suddenly lose interest and run away. There was no acorn, walnut, or other obvious prize left behind, so it was tempting to assume the squirrel had simply been making a mess.
The behavior makes much more sense once you stop thinking of every squirrel hole as a storage container…