Clayton and her colleagues showed that scrub jays have a powerful ability to remember the past and use this information to plan for the future. Scrub jays manage to recall not only where they buried their food, but also what they buried in a particular spot and when they buried it there so that they can retrieve first those foods that are quick to spoil, like fresh fruit, insects and worms, and save for later those that are more enduring, like nuts and seeds.
