Super Squirrels
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In the rolling green hills of California’s Briones Regional Park, not far from the urban bustle of Oakland and Berkeley, the squirrels are not what they seem.
Instead of simply stuffing their cheeks with fruits, nuts or seeds, the California ground squirrels there are now known to hunt, kill, decapitate and consume voles, a fellow rodent species, according to research published Wednesday in the Journal of Ethology.
“This was shocking,” study lead author Jennifer E. Smith, a professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, says in a statement. “We had never seen this behavior before.”
Most people are very familiar with squirrels, accustomed to seeing the animals on their streets or in their yards. And Smith is even more so—since 2013, she has led the Long-term Behavioral Ecology of California Ground Squirrels Project, which monitors squirrel genetics, social behavior and physiological stress responses in the San Francisco Bay area. But even with her intimate knowledge of the rodents, it was only this year that her research team observed ground squirrels actively pursuing and eating meat.
The initial discovery was made by undergraduate researchers, who returned from the field site in Briones Regional Park earlier this year with videos of the squirrels’ behavior to show their incredulous supervisors.
“At first, we questioned what was going on,” Smith tells Suzie Dundas of SFGATE. “But seeing the videos was astounding and shifted my perspective on a species that I have spent the last 12 years of my life studying.”.............
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...-a-california-park-new-study-finds-180985707/
There may be a third optionit’s revenge
===================
In the rolling green hills of California’s Briones Regional Park, not far from the urban bustle of Oakland and Berkeley, the squirrels are not what they seem.
Instead of simply stuffing their cheeks with fruits, nuts or seeds, the California ground squirrels there are now known to hunt, kill, decapitate and consume voles, a fellow rodent species, according to research published Wednesday in the Journal of Ethology.
“This was shocking,” study lead author Jennifer E. Smith, a professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, says in a statement. “We had never seen this behavior before.”
Most people are very familiar with squirrels, accustomed to seeing the animals on their streets or in their yards. And Smith is even more so—since 2013, she has led the Long-term Behavioral Ecology of California Ground Squirrels Project, which monitors squirrel genetics, social behavior and physiological stress responses in the San Francisco Bay area. But even with her intimate knowledge of the rodents, it was only this year that her research team observed ground squirrels actively pursuing and eating meat.
The initial discovery was made by undergraduate researchers, who returned from the field site in Briones Regional Park earlier this year with videos of the squirrels’ behavior to show their incredulous supervisors.
“At first, we questioned what was going on,” Smith tells Suzie Dundas of SFGATE. “But seeing the videos was astounding and shifted my perspective on a species that I have spent the last 12 years of my life studying.”.............
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...-a-california-park-new-study-finds-180985707/