I know that most people know the short videos of the squirrel which accompany the Ice Ages movies. But think about one of these scenes happening to a real squirrel.

At the top of a tall tree the squirrel precariously edges out on the limb as it bends lower with each step. Gripping the branch with its back legs, the squirrel stretches as far forward as it can to lay grasp to the precious acorn. Plucking it from the stem, the acorn gets tucked under one arm/leg/paw like an NFL fullback. Using only three legs, it bounces along the narrow branch onto a thicker one, all the way back to the tree trunk. Holding the acorn up before its gaze, the squirrel is now the proud owner of one large acorn. Success!

The squirrel sinks its top two chopper teeth into the acorn cap and opens it like a bottle of rootbeer. But the acorn gently slips lower at the pressure and squirts down through the grip of just the front two paws. The squirrel can only watch it fall all the way to the ground.

Now it is decision time.

The squirrel can forget about it and go collect another one, or climb all the way down the tree to find the one that was fumbled. Let’s examine these two choices.

The daddy squirrel would run down the tree saving the prize acorn that was dropped.
The mommy squirrel would say she was not touching the dirty one from the ground and climb out for another.
The sister squirrel would decide to climb down for the acorn and go visit some friends.
The brother squirrel would see an acorn on another limb that was harder to get.
The Uncle squirrel would go down the tree and come back with three acorns.
The Auntie squirrel would go shopping on another tree.
The grandpa squirrel would go back to the nest to get one of the acorns stashed away by grandma squirrel.
The grandma squirrel would send grandpa squirrel down to get the acorn she dropped, the acorn he dropped, plus two more to replace the ones he ate from the nest.