For several years there has been an ongoing game of hide and seek. A valve box lid would go missing, and the arboretum curator would be tasked with locating it. The lid could always be found less than 15 feet from the valve box, across the sidewalk, under the same water oak. This particular valve box lid also had the appearance of being used as a chew toy. Today, we caught the culprit in the act.
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| An eastern grey squirrel gnaws on a green plastic lid. |
Video footage was taken:
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| Upon approach, the squirrel dropped the lid and fled up the water oak. This lid has been used to cover the same valve box for at minimum three years. So, this is three years worth of teeth marks. Is this the work of only one squirrel? Interestingly, of the 14 valve boxes in the arboretum's irrigation system, this is the only lid that is ever found apart from its valve box; some of the other lids have teeth marks, but none of them are ever removed from their boxes. |
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| For this week, the old lid was left where it was abandoned under the water oak. A new lid was put in place on the valve box. Will the squirrel(s) preferentially chew on the new or old lid? Will the lids be found together? |
