The common California ground squirrel, long associated with nibbling on acorns and other seeds for sustenance, turns out to be a straight up predator. Not even an opportunistic one, but an eager and skilled predator, with researchers from the University of Wisconsin documenting no fewer that 74 instances of the squirrels viciously preying on smaller, mouse-like rodents called voles.
“Dietary flexibility allows animals to respond adaptively to food pulses in the environment. Here we document the novel emergence of widespread hunting of California voles and carnivorous feeding behavior by California ground squirrels. 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. Our video footage, photographic evidence, and direct observations of marked individual squirrels provide insights into the ecological circumstances favoring behavioral flexibility in foraging associated with a decadal peak in vole abundance,” says the abstract of the chilling new research into the bloody squirrel horde.