Squirrels Use “Snake Perfume” to Fool Predators

Posted by Miss Cellania in Animal, Science & Tech on December 23, 2007 at 8:09 am


150squirrelCalifornia ground squirrels and rock squirrels chew on discarded rattlesnake skin, then smear it on their fur. The result is that they smell like rattlesnake instead of squirrels, which may protect them from snake attack. The journal Animal Behavior published a new study from a team led by Barbara Clucas.

Clucas, a graduate student in animal behavior at the University of California, Davis, said she first noted this behavior in 2002.

She saw rock squirrels at Caballo Lake State Park in New Mexico licking themselves to apply chewed snake skin to their flanks, tails, and rear ends, which gave them the pungent, musky scent of a rattlesnake.

In 2003 she saw California ground squirrels at Lake Solano County Park in California doing the same thing.

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COMMENT

6 comments to "Squirrels Use “Snake Perfume” to Fool Predators"

  1. VonSkippy
    December 23rd, 2007 at 2:45 pm

    Unfortunately (for the chattering bastards - aka squirrels) it does nothing to protect them from my 223 rounds.

  2. Sammy
    December 23rd, 2007 at 11:08 pm

    Ah yes, the one comment posted thus far has to be the obligatory “I’ll shoot them” comment. How typically teen-age.

  3. VonSkippy
    December 24th, 2007 at 1:20 am

    Quick Sammy, call PETA.

    Look on the bright side, the smarter critters (like Magpies and Squirrels) have learned that the death zone only extends about 400 yards in all directions around my pond, and after that, they’re pretty safe (except when I walk the dogs out in the woods and take a pistol or a shotgun just to keep them on their toes…)

  4. MoMo
    December 24th, 2007 at 1:42 am

    It makes no sense to me to kill these little creatures for no reason.

    These squirrels are very smart to figure that trick out.

  5. marieissah
    December 24th, 2007 at 6:35 am

    Will that be effective?

  6. Diogenes
    December 24th, 2007 at 3:48 pm

    —And Human Women use Whale Vomit to Attract their Predators.
    Believe me, squirrels have nothing on us.
    Actually I saw a pigeon punch a squirrel out yesterday because it was “in it’s space”….so I don’t know where that puts them in the whole “city co-inhabitation” thing.
    then again, now that I think about how our parks are just open terrain for the selfish lil critters, and how we all have seen them licking their cute lil paws to brush and clean their cute lil head, we share our lunches and take snapshots of the cutsy moment when grandma has her dentures stolen and the dumb lil squirrel munches through winter’s nuts.I probably could go on, but this has gotten stupid.

    Stealing money from Jimmy Durante


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