Squirrels spotted hunting and eating rodents in ‘shocking’ discovery
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New study suggest squirrels could be opportunistic omnivores. Scientists have for the first time ever found “shocking” evidence of carnivorous behaviour in squirrels — hunting and eating voles in California. Ground squirrels are often seen stuffing their cheeks with nuts, seeds or grains, indicating that they are a granivorous species.
![[California ground squirrel in Conta Costa County runs with a vole it hunted]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/19/03/carnivorous-squirrels.jpg)
But the latest discovery, published in the Journal of Ethology, suggests squirrels may be opportunistic omnivores with a more flexible diet than assumed. In the study, scientists from the University of California Davis assessed 74 interactions of squirrels with voles from June and July 2024.
![[California ground squirrel dines on a vole it hunted in a Bay Area regional park]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/19/03/carnivorous-squirrels-2.jpg)
They found that more than 42 per cent of the interactions involved active hunting of the small rodents by ground squirrels. “This was shocking,” Jennifer E Smith, an associate professor of biology and the study’s lead author, said. “We had never seen this behaviour before.
Here’s this never-before-encountered-in-science behaviour that sheds light on the fact that there is so much more to learn about the natural history of the world around us.”. Initially, when undergraduate students showed a video of what they had seen in the field, Dr Smith said she could “barely believe” her eyes. “From then, we saw that behaviour almost every day. Once we started looking, we saw it everywhere,” she said.
