What is caching? How does it help animals survive the winter? Objective To demonstrate to students how various caching strategies can help certain animals survive the winter. Background To survive the harsh winters in Yellowstone, animals need to adapt. One way that some animals adapt to survive the winter is gathering and storing, or caching, their food so that they can survive when there are fewer resources available. Two significant animals that cache their food are the Clark’s Nutcracker and the Red Squirrel, though their method of caching varies. They way an animal interacts with its envi Duration: 60 Minutes.