How do squirrels help disperse the nuts of Fagales trees?

Squirrels contribute to the dispersal of Fagales trees primarily through their food-caching behavior. As part of their strategy to store food for later consumption, squirrels bury nuts underground in various locations.12

This process aids the trees because squirrels often fail to recover all of the nuts they have cached. When these stored nuts are left unclaimed in the soil, they are effectively planted, allowing them to germinate and emerge as new seedlings by the following spring. While some squirrel species may store food in a single location, others bury nuts in multiple, organized spots across a general area, which increases the likelihood that some seeds will remain undisturbed and successfully grow into trees.12