If you throw a paper airplane in front of a squirrel, why does it sniff it before it leaves?

Any creature not human cannot and does not know what an item is just by looking at it. It doesn't register ';paper airplane'; in its mind, or even ';Paper';, for that matter. All it sees is something it hasn't seen before. So, it uses its senses to try to figure out if this ';thing'; is food, dangerous, friend, foe, etc.. After sniffing it, it realizes that the object is not alive, and that it is not food, and that it is probably okay to just go away and leave it. If you throw a paper airplane in front of a squirrel, why does it sniff it before it leaves?
If you're talking about the squirrel, then it's figuring out what it is.


If you're talking about the paper airplane, then paper airplanes can't sniff.If you throw a paper airplane in front of a squirrel, why does it sniff it before it leaves?
I've never seen a paper airplane sniff before it leaves...!