California ground squirrels hunt, kill and eat voles, reveals a study by UC Davis and UW-Eau Claire, sharing the first evidence of widespread carnivorous behavior among squirrels.
A lot of herbivores will eat meat when starving or stressed. Or just if the happen upon easily accessible meat. Most animals aren’t confined to only one food source. To be a omnivore, they need to regularly seek out, consume, and digest both plant and animal parts. Wolves eat grass sometimes, but they can’t digest it.
This study is crazy because there are multiple individuals showing this behavior. Not to mention they are actively hunting the voles. Indicating that this behavior wasn’t opportunistic. Which is really cool! Though, a squirrel with the appetite of a shrew sounds terrifying.
A lot of herbivores will eat meat when starving or stressed. Or just if the happen upon easily accessible meat. Most animals aren’t confined to only one food source. To be a omnivore, they need to regularly seek out, consume, and digest both plant and animal parts. Wolves eat grass sometimes, but they can’t digest it.
This study is crazy because there are multiple individuals showing this behavior. Not to mention they are actively hunting the voles. Indicating that this behavior wasn’t opportunistic. Which is really cool! Though, a squirrel with the appetite of a shrew sounds terrifying.
This reminds me of the Rick and Morty episode where they can understand the squirrels talking.
As long as they don’t have the metabolism of a shrew. We don’t need cow-sized, carnivorous squirrels any time soon!
There is a movie about killer shrews.