Flesh-eating squirrels caught in California

Dec 18, 2024 WNCT TV
A team of scientists researching in California say they’ve recorded multiple instances of ground squirrels hunting and eating voles, describing it as a “novel behavior never previously observed in our study population”.

A paper published on December 18 in the Journal of Ethology said that, “Over two months in the twelfth year of a long-term study on the squirrel population, we document 74 events of juvenile and adult ground squirrels of both sexes depredating, consuming, and/or competing over vole prey.”

The paper cited previous research that showed squirrels to be “capable of killing and consuming adult fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.” But it remained “challenging to distinguish between scavenging and direct predation.”

“The direct study of hunting behavior by squirrels remains rare,” the paper said.

The researchers said their footage showed “the first evidence of California ground squirrels … repeatedly hunting, killing and consuming adult vertebrate prey in nature.”

Dec 18, 2024 WAAY
CNN video KI-54WE by Sonja Wild of UC Davis