[Vision2020] Squirrels Heat Tails To Repel Rattlers

[Ted Moffett]

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/squirrels-heat-tails-for-defense/20070815080809990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
Squirrels Heat Tails for Defense
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID,
AP
Posted: 2007-08-15 09:23:21
Filed Under: Science News <http://news.aol.com/science>

WASHINGTON (Aug. 14) - California ground squirrels <javascript:;>  have
learned to intimidate rattlesnakes by heating their tails and shaking them
aggressively.

Because the snakes, which are ambush hunters, can sense infrared radiation
from heat, the warming makes the tails more conspicuous to them — signaling
that they have been discovered and that the squirrels may come and harass
them, explained Aaron Rundus, lead author of a study in this week's online
edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The tail "flagging" places the snakes on the defensive, he said.

Adult squirrels are not the snakes' prey, Rundus said in a telephone
interview. The adults have a protein in their blood that allows them to
survive the snake venom, and they have been known to attack and injure
snakes, biting and kicking gravel at them.

Rather, the snakes are looking for immature squirrels, which they can kill
and eat, said Rundus, who did the research while at the Animal Behavior
Graduate Group at the University of California, Davis.

Researchers are not sure just how the squirrels cause their tails to heat
up, but they think it may be by shunting warm blood from the body core into
the tail.

"It's such a new discovery that it leaves a lot of questions," he said.

But apparently it isn't just a reflex, because they only do it with
rattlesnakes.

Confronted by gopher snakes, which can't sense heat, the squirrels wave
their tails vigorously, but don't bother to heat them up.

So how did they discover that the squirrels heat their tails?

The researchers were studying how squirrels reacted to various predators and
noticed that with rattlesnakes they waved their tails even more in dark
conditions than in the light.

That prompted the researchers to view the encounters using an infrared
camera, and they discovered the squirrels' tails were much warmer than
normal when dealing with rattlesnakes.

Learning more about these complex communication methods among animals may
help improve understanding of how complex human communications have evolved,
Rundus said.

He said it serves as a reminder that to understand more about animal life,
we need to pay close attention to how animals act. "There is potentially a
lot going on out there that we're not aware of," he said.


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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett


On 8/15/07, Carl Westberg <carlwestberg846 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> "I hate it when squirrels do that."  Not as much as the squirrel does.
> Speaking of squirrels, that reminds me of the friendly squirrels on the U
> of
> I campus, and I'm glad to report the students are back.  Yesterday
> afternoon
> I witnessed the ancient, annual mating ritual known as fraternity/sorority
> rush.  The primping, the preening, the hair toss, the checking of make up.
> And the young ladies were doing the same thing.   Carl Westberg Jr.
>
>
> >From: Craine Kit <kcraine at verizon.net>
> >To: Dan Carscallen <areaman at moscow.com>
> >CC: vision2020 at moscow.com
> >Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Fried squirrel, anyone?
> >Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:19:06 -0700
> >
> >I hate it when squirrils do that. Jangles my nerves. Our power went
> >off then on just before I heard the faint boom. It was down just long
> >enough so I had to reset the TV box and the clocks. You'd think their
> >mothers would teach them not to touch two wires at the same time!
> >
> >Kit Craine
> >
> >
> >On Aug 15, 2007, at 9:18 AM, Dan Carscallen wrote:
> >
> > > If you heard the "BOOM" over on the east side of town about 0845 or
> > > so, a transformer near the intersection of Harold and Nez Perce
> > > blowed up real good, possibly from a squirrel having a
> > > misadventure.  There are some outages at the moment, but Avista is
> > > on the way.
> > >
> > > DC
> > > ==============================
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