Scientists Prove that Squirrels are Sneaky
Thu, Jan 17, 2008
I hate squirrels.
I know it’s a bit odd for an environmentalist to go around saying they hate an animal, but I can’t stand the little things. The horrible noise their claws make on the roof of a house, the evil way they sit up on their hind legs and stare at you, it all really creeps me out. It may stem from my fear of rodents in general, but every time I see a squirrel I can’t help but think they’re up to no good.
Now it appears I’ve been partially vindicated. A scientific study has shown that squirrels are sneaky.
Dr. Michael Steele, a researcher at Pennsylvania’s Wilkes University, and several colleagues performed a study on grey squirrel behaviour. They placed acorns near squirrels and watched what the animals did with them.
You’re probably aware that squirrels hoard their food. What you might not have known is that squirrels don’t keep all their nuts in one place, but make various holes and hiding places for their food stash. Apparently, they’re also paranoid. Squirrels not only make a large number of real hiding places for their nuts, they also make fake ones. If you see a squirrel digging a hiding place, there is actually a more than 20% chance that it’s a fake.
“But Robert,” you’re saying, “that just proves squirrels are smart.” Well, you don’t know the whole story. It turns out that they do this because the other squirrels are dirty thieves.
The study found that squirrels are far more likely to make fake holes when they know they’re being watched by other squirrels. To the researchers, this suggests that the squirrels are aware of other squirrels intention to steal.
So there you have it, squirrels are deceptive when they hide their food because they know that other squirrels are thieves that are not to be trusted.
This article is biased, yes. But don’t you have an animal you find really creepy?
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3 Trackbacks For This Post
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The Fire Ant Gazette Says:
January 17th, 2008 at 3:51 pmSquirrels are people, too…
Squirrels have a lot more in common with humans than you might think….
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The Detroit City Rocks Linkdump « Darkly Dreaming David Says:
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:03 pm[...] Scientists Prove that Squirrels are Sneaky [...]
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El Geek Errante · El Geek Errante: transmisión #32 Says:
February 28th, 2008 at 11:51 pm[...] La ciencia demuestra que las ardillas son paranoicas [...]
January 17th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Lots of people hate Squirrels. They’re tree rats. The greys have almost driven the native reds out of England. They eat our nuts and fruits and have no real predator. As such they go unchecked. There is only one environmental solution: eat them. There are plenty of recipes available on Google.
If we ate enough rabbits, they too would not be a problem and they wouldn’t end up over-populating and suffering the horrors of mixymatosis.
January 18th, 2008 at 1:23 am
Dear god…this is the absolute DUMBEST blog entry I’ve ever read.
Squirrels are awesome, YOU SUCK, and that’s all there is to say.
January 18th, 2008 at 1:40 am
http://youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw
Chipmunks are sneaky too.
January 18th, 2008 at 9:17 am
I have witnessed a squirrel in the San Francisco zoo to go towards a baby stroll (the baby and the parents where at the children’s zoo at the time), to manage to OPEN a secure bag (the kind of bag that many kids can’t open), and steal food from it. I had a camera with me, but everything happened so fast that I didn’t think of filming this. The funny thing was that after the squirrel found the food started running like hell, obviously knowing that it did something disgraceful. Happened in June 2007.
January 18th, 2008 at 9:30 am
You’re last claim kind of lost me. The squirrels digging holes most likely don’t know that other squirrels “are thieves that are not to be trusted.” They more likely find a correlation between other squirrels watching and the percentage of nuts left in their holes and creating fake holes in the same situation. Operant Conditioning: not personalized emotions such as ‘distrust.’
January 18th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Minah birds worry me sometimes…. the look so God damn cocky bouncing around..
January 18th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Well, now that’s a funny story.
Just to bring a lil’ addition to the usefulness of the squirrels:
As they have so many hiding places, they tend to forget a bunch of hem, contributing to seed dissemination. This is very useful as they play a role in planting trees randomly in their habitat.
In my part of the world, squirrels are hard to find and seeing one is a blessing. :)
January 18th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Well well…looks like they are just like humans.
January 18th, 2008 at 11:00 am
I love squirrels. They are beautiful creatures and I love the fact that they are mischievous. Makes for hilarious viewing from the distance. They make great pets, as they are very intelligent and loyal :)
January 18th, 2008 at 11:19 am
I am constantly amazed at how much cash is wasted in the name of science.
Living in a rural spot in the middle of the UK, there are loads of squirrels here, that we happen to like and so feed. Consequently I fail to see what is so new about the idea of them burying their food in lots of places. I’ve watched this happen for years.
As for the “20% chance its a fake” I watch the ones here collect the food from outside my window and then see them go and bury it. Predictably they then come back for more and bury that too. This happens over and over until all the food is gone and then off they go to the next hoard. I have never seen them go away empty handed or go to more than one location to bury it.
There are better things to research in this world. Maybe the researcher in this case should find something better to do with his time as he plainly is a bit cack at research.
January 18th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Creepy? Up to “no good”? What would a squirrel have to do to be up to “good”? Unlike ants (my least fave creature) squirrels do not swarm, and bite only if you’re really fast and really want to be bitten. They clean up plant mess and are generally pretty cute. I’m sorry that it sounds like a squirrel killed your parents; I’m sure it was just a freak accident.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
^hey retard, why waste money on food for animals then?
January 18th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
You are truly funked in the head. Squirrels are awesome creatures.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
hey.
squirrels are nice and friendly. feed one some time and see if it doesn’t remember the exact time and place you fed it initially. it is well worth your time and effort to feed squirrels on a regular basis. if you disagree with feeding wild animals, for whatever reason, take the time to watch the little buggers in the trees around your house. be thankful you have intelligent creatures around to watch at all. squirrels represent a highly-evolved, friendly mammal, and we should respect their eco-viability.
let’s not be assholes here. let’s not be a little baby and whine about the “noise [squirrels'] claws make on the roof of a house,” let’s appreciate all living creatures, let’s give some thought to bio-diversity and care a little less about our own selves.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
That’s not cool, bro. Squirrels are awesome. Get over your ridiculous phobia and embrace those furry things. Rodents in general are quite cool, but squirrels? Dude, squirrels are awesome.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I’m sorry Robert but you need your head checked to even imply these things about these creatures is wrong.
When was the last time you heard of a human getting hurt by a squirrel?
The only thing the article proves is that squirrels are very intelligent.
I have owned squirrels as pets before and they were the best damn pets i have ever had.
This article should be reposted without being so biased.
January 18th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
“But don’t you have an animal you find really creepy?”
Humans
January 18th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
You gotta be kidding. The squirrel started running to avoid being captured. That is the ‘obvious’ behaviour of any animal who has larger animals as its predators. It is how ‘prey’ animals survive.
January 18th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
look, all of you who are telling me i suck at life are not going to make me hate squirrels any less. I never said it was a rational fear of them, just that I fear and hate the animals. I have no desire to learn more or touch them and I certainly do not want one as a pet. You all have some animal you are afraid of, I’m sure. If you hated snakes, which I personally find quite cool, I would not abuse you for disliking them. I’m not suggesting we kill them or anything, just that I don’t like them. The grey squirrel population will remain intact despite me calling them sneaky. Yes, the article is biased. I even say so at the bottom. I have provided links to less biased articles below the text. Read them if you dislike my take on squirrels. They are boring.
January 18th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I think people who think squirrels are creepy, are creepy.
January 18th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Although squirrels are generally quite aggressive creatures, most of their aggression comes out self protection. Here in the UK there were two varieties (Red & Grey), The red squirrel is all but extinct, mainly because there categorized as vermin. Yet another animal that has been forced out of existence without a second thought by mankind.
http://www.aninconvenientblog.co.uk
January 18th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
rich, red squirrels are going extinct not because they’re thought of as vermin, but because the introduced grey squirrel is outcompeting them for the same resources and carries a disease which greys are immune to but decimates the red squirrel population. we did an article about this a while back.
January 18th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
I embrace your fear. I’ve believed for years that the Insurgent Squirrel Terrorists are secretly plotting world domination and the eventual subjugation of all mankind. I’ve been carefully cataloging squirrel related acts of terror for several years.
Others think so as well:
Jul. 2007: Iranian intelligence operatives recently detained over a dozen squirrels found within the nation’s borders, claiming the rodents were serving as spies for Western powers determined to undermine the Islamic Republic.
Jun. 2007: Over 1200 squirrels massed together to take over 2 building on the University of Georgia campus.
Jun. 2007: An unusually aggressive squirrel attacked three people in a German town before its last victim finished it off with a crutch, police said.
Mar. 2007: The Squirrels’ target seems to be the US Power Grid as suicide squirrel insurgents cause untold electrical outages all over the country. No doubt it’s a small piece of a much larger conspiracy.
What must their cohorts be doing during those blackouts? There’s no telling what covert operations they may be running under that cover of darkness.
Feb. 2007: An American Airlines flight from Tokyo has been forced to make an emergency landing in Honolulu because a rogue squirrel had managed to sneak on board.
Oct. 2005: A rogue squirrel knocked out power across much of the Eastern Seaboard early today in an act of sabotage that the president is calling “a heinous and cowardly act of rodent terrorism.” An unidentified squirrel leaped into an electrical transformer at a unidentified substation shortly after 9 a.m., just as the business day began.
So maybe that old lady in the park wasn’t so crazy after all?!? Be ever vigilant!!!
January 18th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
I happen to actually like squirrels. However, some of you other squirrel lovers/likers SERIOUSLY need to chill out or use your nonsensical outrage for positive pursuits. He didn’t say he was going to eradicate every squirrel from the face of the earth, he just finds them off-putting. Big frickin’ deal. You’ll notice he also provided some information you may or may not have known prior to reading this.
January 18th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
You wanna know what I hate? People who think they can assign human characteristics to animals, like “sneaky” or “paranoid”. If you don’t like squirrels it’s fine with me, but don’t say something they’re not when they just follow their instincts to survive.
January 18th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
This study only touches the tip of the iceberg. Not only are squirrels sneaky, but they have no respect for women. Anyone who has ever spent time in Boulder, Co will know what I’m talking about.
January 18th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
I personally really hate horses. They really creep me out. Cows are much, much cooler.
January 18th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
I have five dogs and sometimes when taking them outside, there will be a squirrel or two up in the trees. I swear to God they make my dogs crazy on purpose … run fast up a tree and then settle on a branch, look down on the dogs just jumping up and down barking their fool heads off & salivating at the thought of catching a squirrel ..and the squirrel is just sitting there laughing his ass off at them. I swear the squirrels just tease the dogs on purpose … it’s great entertainment for me personally because I usually end up laughing to the point of tears sometimes …
March 20th, 2008 at 6:32 am
You know what I hate? People who think animals are purely automatons. Animals have been shown to do more than instincts, and obviously we had to develop from that as well (except for you, dingdong).
March 20th, 2008 at 6:36 am
FINALLY someone sensible after all these ridiculous comments. You’re my hero!
March 20th, 2008 at 6:42 am
Perhaps people could let their dogs loose more often. Maybe that’ll lower the gray squirrel population.
As much as I like squirrels… I imagine that people in the UK hate them as much as we in the US hate starlings.
(Sorry for the 3rd comment in a row…)
April 29th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Can someone tell me if squirrels are afraid of snakes?
Am thinking of laying a black rubber hose along roof line of my eaves to discourage them from eating away at my wooden siding?
Thanks