During a Rodent Quadrathlon, Researchers Learn That Ground Squirrels Have Personalities - Scientific American
( September 17, 2021; Scientific American )
In this podcast with Jaclyn Aliperti, we learn about the researcher's work studying the personalities of ground squirrels. In particular, Aliperti is the first person to perform rigorous study of the species' personalities from the perspectives of: activity, aggressiveness, boldness, and sociability. Interestingly, the animals that she studied differed from each other, but remained self-consistent for as long as 3 years.
Compared to its more famous, bushy-tailed cousin the tree squirrel, the golden-mantled ground squirrel looks a lot like a chipmunk and spends most of the year hibernating. And talk about bird-brained: ground squirrels’ brains are about the size of the pine nuts they eat.
So it might come as a surprise that according to new research, these squirrels have observable personalities. But it’s something Jaclyn Aliperti noticed back in 2015, when she joined a project at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado. There they had been studying the behavior of golden-mantled ground squirrels for over 30 years. To her, some of the squirrels seemed skittish and shy, while others that were more than happy to get up close and personal for a snack:
Read or listen to the rest from Scientific American: During a Rodent Quadrathlon, Researchers Learn That Ground Squirrels Have Personalities
Reference:
-Bridging animal personality with space use and resource use in a free-ranging population of an asocial ground squirrel - (September 10, 2021; Animal Behaviour)
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My puppies definitely have apparently distinctive personalities. The bigger one is calm and gentle, whereas the slim one is troublesome and always causing problems. Animals can be very dramatic too, dogs and cats esepcially.
I definitely agree with this point. Over the years, we have had a number of cats and dogs, and there is no doubt that every single one of them had a unique personality.
All the squirrels I have seen have an amazing personality filled inside tiny bodies. I definitely feel all animals have distinct personalities, just like human. Anyone that takes the time to get to know an animal knows this.
I agree with you that most animals have personalities. I have seen this in pets from guinea pigs and hamsters up to dogs. At the same time, though, I'm a little bit skeptical of the tool they used to measure it. It's such a subjective thing, that I wonder if there's really a way to reliably quantify it.
I also notice many species personalities on ground squirrels and now they are being pet of many people for their personalities. Thanks for this interesting blog.
It is very surprising news to see that the squirrel have so much deep personality and characteristics. Science have been enabled to know more about anything. That's very good.
Squirrel is usually a very diverse and solitary animal. Their personalities are completely different from other animals. They are not particularly friendly with each other and do not have the habit of fighting. They do not fight for territory and do not share separate habitat.
There are something extraordinary on their brain than any other animal. There are many similar behavior with human in ground squirrels.
An interesting valuable invention they made. It is very important to know about more insects on the world.
I saw the Squirrels run very fast and get in the tree also too fast.
When I was in school I used to see many Squirrels
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