Several wild squirrels living in a park in Beijing may suffer from starvation as some "indecent visitors" have followed the animals and stolen the walnuts they have stored under ground for the coming cold winter.

The animals, which live around dozens of walnut trees in the northwestern woods in Dongcheng District's Jinshan Park, embedded the walnuts deep into the earth so that they could still have something to eat during the chilly winter in the capital, the Beijing Times reported today.

However, the nuts attracted some greedy visitors who followed the animals to their storage sites, watched the squirrels cover-up the food and then dug the walnuts out, the report said.

The "food theft" raised concerns among park employees who worry that the squirrels may face starvation this winter as the walnuts are the staple food for these wild animals to survive on during the frigid winter when average temperatures are as low as zero degrees centigrade.

(Shanghai Daily September 5, 2007)