Emergency rations...

IF YOU’VE ever watched a squirrel in the garden, busily collecting nuts and seeds before burying them in a variety of different caches for later use, you have witnessed ‘panic-buying’ in the animal kingdom. And if you concur with the findings of a recent study from the University of Sheffield into the phenomenon during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, we humans are not a lot different, exhibiting all the facets of animal foraging theory, a natural inclination to collect and store resources.

We all witnessed the nightly news broadcasts showing empty supermarket shelves, stripped