What does a squirrel eat? You probably just answered “nuts!” in your head. And good old Scrat, Ice Agesurely has something to do with it… In fact, squirrels are indeed a granivorous species, who love nuts, seeds and even cereals. But that was without taking into account a recent study carried out by a team of researchers from the University of California at Davis, in the United States, and published in the Journal of Ethology.
Hold on: according to this one, scientists have spotted squirrels hunting and then devouring voles, small mammals that look more or less like mice. As The Independent reports, this is the first evidence “shocking” of squirrels’ carnivorous behavior, suggesting that they may actually be opportunistic omnivores with a more flexible diet than previously thought.
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The study aimed to examine how California ground squirrels adapt their behavior in response to environmental changes. During this time, the researchers recorded seventy-four interactions between the squirrels and the voles. 42% of encounters involved squirrels actively hunting and consuming voles.
They found that their summer carnivorous behavior peaked during the first two weeks of July, linked to an explosion in the number of voles in the local park. That said, they did not observe the squirrels hunting other mammals, leading them to suspect that this behavior may have emerged in response to a temporary increase in prey availability.
“It was shocking”says Jennifer Smith, associate professor of biology and lead author of the study. At first, when the students showed a video of what they saw in the field, the professor could hardly believe her eyes. “From that point on, we saw this behavior almost every day. Once we started looking, we saw it everywhere”she explains.
“Incredible resilience”
In fact, it is already known that squirrels can be carnivorous, but cases of rodents hunting and then killing other living vertebrates had never been recorded before. “The fact that California ground squirrels are behaviorally flexible and can respond to changes in food availability could help them persist in environments that change rapidly due to human presence”develops Sonja Wild, another author of the study.
But the squirrel is not the only one subject to a change in diet. Several species of mammals such as the raccoon, coyote and spotted hyena are known to be“incredible opportunists” and demonstrate great flexibility in their hunting strategies, which helps them adapt to human-modified landscapes. Indeed, although we generally categorize animals based on their eating habits, it is not uncommon for even the strictest carnivore to eat fruit from time to time
The researchers now hope to understand if and how this behavior is transmitted from parents to offspring and how it affects California’s ecology. According to Jennifer Smith, these new findings could also help set the stage for future research into the adaptability of different species of squirrels and other mammals to environmental changes. “Animals can adapt or disappear in a human-influenced world, and these animals show us the incredible resilience of some species,” she concludes.
