A study published this Wednesday in the scientific journal Journal of Ethology reveals that California ground squirrels, in addition to feeding on seeds and other parts of plants, also They hunt, kill and eat “voles”a type of small rodent.
This research, led by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and the University of California, Davis, is the first to document California squirrels. of all ages and sexes hunting and feeding on these rodents, which are normally prey for hawks, owls, coyotes and skunks, among other animals.
The ground squirrel, a very common animal in parks and groves in the United States, is considered a herbivorous specieswhich normally feeds on grass and oak seeds and vegetation, such as leaves, flowers, stems, shoots, roots or branches.
However, the study has documented ground squirrels hunting or eating these types of rodents on 74 occasions, a behavior that peaked during the first two weeks of July 2024, when there was also a proliferation of voles at Briones Regional Park (in ContraCosta County).
According to the article published in Journal of Ethologytitled Vole Hunting: New Predatory and Carnivorous Behavior of California Ground Squirrels, This same behavior was not observed with other mammals.
“We have never seen this behavior. (…) This tells us that there is much more to learn about the natural history of the world around us,” says one of the lead authors, Jennifer E.Smith, associate professor of Biology at the University of Wisconsin, in an article published by the center.
For her part, Sonja Wild, who has also led the research, states that the fact that squirrels have “a flexible behavior and can respond to changes in food availability could help them persist in environments that change rapidly due to human presence.
The experts, who will return to the study area next summer, point out that there are many questions left to answersuch as to what extent hunting is widespread among squirrels, if it is something that is transmitted from parents to offspring or how it affects ecological processes.
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