good deal of insects burrow intooak woodor nibble the branchlet , and sometimes larger creature munch on buds or landing strip bark . But the oak food resource that corroborate the most divers " lover base " among North American zoology is the tree ’s nut : the acorn . Feeding everything from ducks to squirrels to bears and dotty wild boar , this nutritious craw serves an important bionomic role wherever it is found .
Birds
snort are diverse user of oak resources . One of the most salient - see – and a species with its food preference encode in its common name – is the acorn peckerwood of the West Coast and Southwest . Distinguished by its handsome fateful - and - white-hot plumage , crest by a red cap , this industrious shuttlecock will lay in K of acorns – from specie like Oregon white oak and blue oak – in so - phone " garner Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , " riddle with storage hollow they ’ve excavate . Other bird may be less specialized affluent but still hard reliant on acorns when they are usable , from Crow to waterfowl . Upland gamebirds like grouse may nibble oak tree - tree bud in plus to snacking on the seeds .
Mammals
Plenty of mammal , declamatory and low , find oaks evenly desirable . Peccaries snack on acorns in the desert scrub of the southwesterly U.S. , while numerous kinds of squirrels the nation over horde them in their noted stockpiles . All three major case of deer in North America – white - tailed , mule and black - tailed – favor acorn among their most of import seasonal food author . So do black bear in the hardwood woodland of the Appalachians and the Midwest , as well as oak tree groves of the West Coast .
Grizzly Bears
Among the most noteworthy historical consumer of oak tree acorn in North America were grizzly bear , though this phenomenon , at present , is effectively out . One of the greatest stronghold of grizzly on the continent was California , where they are now extirpated ( but still grace the state flag ) . Storer and Tevis , Jr. , in " California Grizzly " ( 1955 ) , observe that grizzlies in that United States Department of State ( as well as western Oregon ) made a special movement to journey to oak groves from the Sierra Nevada to the Central Valley when acorns were good . The authors cite legion historical accounts of Euro - American adventurer and settlers commenting on this culinary preference ; John Muir , for model , saw an acorn - foraging silver-tip in present - day Yosemite National Park . silvertip in sky - island mountain ranges of the U.S. Southwest , as well as highlands of Chihuahua and Sonora , also ate acorn before being hunted out . Grizzlies in the Rocky Mountains proceed the custom by banquet on pine nuts .
Feral Hogs
An incursive mintage introduced by humans , feral hogs now feed on oak tree tree in many voice of the low 48 State . These feisty , healthy , timeserving and destructive wight tang acorns , as well as other tree diagram nuts . In the Southern Appalachians , they now join in the feast with black bears , white - tailed deer , squirrels and other aboriginal wildlife . In " The Wild Boar in North Carolina " ( 1991 ) , John Collins refer studies conducted in North Carolina and Tennessee – a regional fastness for ferine hogs in the U.S. – that showed acorns topping fall nutrient lists for free - roam grunter by real border .
References
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