Snakey smells help squirrels stay safe Thu Dec 20, 11:02 AM ET



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It's scary being a little, tasty squirrel, but some species of the rodents have come up with an intimidating camouflage -- snake smells.

California ground squirrels and rock squirrels chew up rattlesnake skin and smear it on their fur to mask their scent, a team at the University of California Davis reported.

"They're turning the tables on the snake," Donald Owings, a professor of psychology who helped lead the research, said in a statement.

Barbara Clucas, a graduate student in animal behavior, watched ground squirrels and rock squirrels chewing up pieces of skin shed by snakes and then licking their fur.

The scent probably helps to mask the squirrel's own scent, especially when the animals are asleep in their burrows, they wrote in the journal Animal Behavior.

http://http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071220/sc_nm/squirrels_snakes_dc (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071220/sc_nm/squirrels_snakes_dc)

Speaking of squirrels one keeps coming around my backyard terrorizing my dog.He is driving me nuts with his barking and going nuts to run in the backyard looking for it. The squirrel taunts him from the fence lol. The other day something really unusual happened.
The squirrel jumped in a bush and killed a bird then dragged it in its mouth across the fence......visious bastard.

...The squirrel taunts him from the fence...

my neighbor says there's a squirrel that does the same thing. Do they ??

I wonder how the squirrels learned to use the shed snake skin.

my neighbor says there's a squirrel that does the same thing. Do they ??

I wonder how the squirrels learned to use the shed snake skin.

Would you eat a squirrel ? :p

You mean 'tree chicken'?
Not unless I had to. tough and gamey.

You mean 'tree chicken'?
Not unless I had to. tough and gamey.

I don't know but this squirrel you can almost see him laughing at my dog!
He is just far enough that he knows he can't get him.......

HA HA you stupid dog you can't get me...

Speaking of squirrels one keeps coming around my backyard terrorizing my dog.He is driving me nuts with his barking and going nuts to run in the backyard looking for it. The squirrel taunts him from the fence lol. The other day something really unusual happened.
The squirrel jumped in a bush and killed a bird then dragged it in its mouth across the fence......visious bastard.



Thank goodness you don't have one of these in your backyard!! :eek:

http://www.johnnyjetpack.com/squirrel.htm

They make a good stew. A good pellet gun will kill them at close range (like on your bird feeder of porch railing) without disturbing the neighbors.

They make a good stew. A good pellet gun will kill them at close range (like on your bird feeder of porch railing) without disturbing the neighbors.

Wtf..!? :bugeye:

They make a good stew. A good pellet gun will kill them at close range (like on your bird feeder of porch railing) without disturbing the neighbors.

I think I will pass on the stew :bugeye:

They make a good stew. A good pellet gun will kill them at close range (like on your bird feeder of porch railing) without disturbing the neighbors.

I heard they are best simmered in the crock pot for a while. It helps to make them a bit more tender. I've never been hungry enough to eat one.
My Dad grew up hunting them. My mom drew the line on some animals.

I think I will pass on the stew :bugeye:

If you weren't told, ya wouldn't know. Before supermarkets, they were regularly eaten. Rabbits, raccoons, ducks, geese, possum, beavers, woodchuck, etc.

What does everyone think Native Americans and pioneers lived on??

What does everyone think Native Americans and pioneers lived on

Their own frikin land until Europeans stole it from them! :mad:

Their own frikin land until Europeans stole it from them! :mad:

Fighting over territory had been happening for thousands of years in North/South America before Europeans arrived. Europeans were just better at it. Survival of the fittest.

You're right, Oleander. Many people have this idea of peaceful Indians being overrun by warlike Europeans. They seem to forget that the different tribes and nations were killing each other off long before the Europeans arrived on the scene. The Cahokia disappeared. The Anasazi disappeared. The Tuscarora were driven from their homeland in the Southeast to the north where they joined the Iriquois Confederation. Blackfeet, Crow, Cheyenne, Sioux all fought with each other.

The Europeans were just much better at defeating their enemies than the Native Americans were.