An industrious squirrel must have felt a higher calling this year when prepping for the winter ahead.

Its cache of walnuts — carefully tucked under the hood of a Toyota sedan owned by the Sisters of Charity in Greensburg — was discovered by an unsuspecting auto mechanic Wednesday.

“It’s amazing. It’s a whole lot of nuts,” said Dennis Ledgerwood, owner of Moore Tire Service in Greensburg.

With nuts piled against the engine wall, battery and anti-lock braking system, it appeared the squirrel was hiding at least 30 walnuts, if not more, upon further inspection.

The stockpile of winter food surrounded a nest made with chewed bits of insulation from under the car hood.

“It would make a real nice warm bed,” joked Lynn Wagner, communications director for the Sisters of Charity, the order of nuns who founded Seton Hill University in 1918.

Ledgerwood, a veteran mechanic with nearly 54 years in the business, said he has seen animals hoarding nuts in the engine area of vehicles before, “but never to this degree.”

He drove the car about 2 miles Wednesday from the Sisters of Charity, which is adjacent to the university, to his shop for its annual inspection and noted it had been driven about 2,000 miles since he last serviced it in March.

He and Wagner surmised the animal activity must have been recent.

She said no one who has driven the car since March reported seeing an animal near it but noted the wooded property where it is parked is home to all types of animals.

“We have a lot of critters up here,” Wagner said. “It’s a haven.”

According to the Utah State University Extension, it’s common for squirrels and other wild animals to take up residence in cars, which are an ideal shelter, the extension notes on its website.

The small, compact spaces in an engine block are a great refuge from winter weather and predators. An engine also stays warm for a while after it has been shut off, and this heat can entice animals to climb into it, the site notes.

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