From: Allison Winter, ENN Published December 5, 2012 09:30 AM
Eurasian Jays: Suspicious Stashers or Stealthy Stealers?  In
order to prevent other birds from stealing their winter food
supply, Eurasian jays, a member of the crow family, try to
stealthily hide their collection when a potential thief is near.
However they are also minimizing their sounds in an attempt to
stay unnoticed and spy on other birds' hoards.   Eurasian jays
are creative hoarders that bury food like acorns and seeds in
thousands of locations over the course of a year so they can
retrieve their reserves when food is scarce. However, these
hidden reserves do not always remain a secret and the stealing
of these hoards is a common practice among species in the animal
kingdom.   Researchers at the University of Cambridge first
conducted an experiment where they gave the jays options to hide
food in two different mediums: gravel and sand. The birds'
preferences for using these different substrates were tested
when they were alone, when they h