There is one city famous for building bridges across city streets, so the squirrels do not get run over. But no one took a survey before. Story at Phys.org. (Why, I have no idea. It is figuratively driving me nuts.)
Human disturbance in urban environments makes some squirrels fail, but others perform better in novel problem-solving.
Unlike natural environments, urban areas have artificial buildings, traffics, less greenery and, most prominently, more humans. Despite these seemingly 'harsh' or stressful characteristics, some wildlife like the Eurasian red squirrel have chosen to settle down in urban environments, and they thrive. Urban wildlife often show higher behavioral flexibility and increased ability to solve novel problems, and thus can exploit new resources. However, which characteristics of urban environments influence animals' performance, and their relative importance, have remained unclear.
In a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a research team led by Itsuro Koizumi of Hokkaido University set out a novel food-extraction problem for wild Eurasian red squirrels in 11 urban areas in Hokkaido, Japan. This problem contains out-of-reach nuts on levers, and the successful solutions are counterintuitive: a squirrel has to push a lever if it is close to a nut, whereas it has to pull a lever if it is far away from the nut.
The researchers also recorded the environmental characteristics in each area, including direct human disturbance (mean number of humans present per day), indirect human disturbance (the number of buildings), green coverage, and squirrel's population size, and then correlated these with squirrels' novel problem-solving performance.
Ah, symbiosis, where we unwittingly train the rodents to be smarter than us, with the inevitable unpleasant outcome. All hail the squirrel named Caesar!
Longview, Washington, for those too lazy to google or duck-duck.
Journal Reference:
Characteristics of urban environments and novel problem-solving performance in Eurasian red squirrels, Proceedings of the Royal Society B (DOI: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.2832)
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @04:17PM (4 children)
Parisian scientists set out a novel food-extraction problem for wild Eurasian Muslims in 11 urban areas in Paris. the problem contains out-of-reach halal meat on baguettes, and the successful solutions are counterintuitive: in this case, the vermin has to hand over a coin, rather than launch a suicide attack as is its natural inclination.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday April 01 2021, @05:55PM
That sounds pretty neat. Did you know that Brooklyn scientists glued pennies on the sidewalks near all of the local synagogues? They wanted to measure the average time and number of Jews it took trying to remove the pennies before they gave up or used tools to remove the pennies.
What the scientists found was remarkable: Every once in awhile the Jews would succeed in removing one of those pennies, leading to 2 or more Jews playing tug of war with it. Did you know that's how copper wire was invented?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @06:15PM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @06:23PM (1 child)
You should try the RC Cola. Your IQ will probably triple, right on up there to 75!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @06:46PM
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday April 01 2021, @04:18PM (1 child)
The squirrels in my area at least seem to have been evolving a concept of "road", taking precautions like stopping and looking before stepping onto paved anything. Which makes sense, since not taking that precaution increases their odds of winning a Darwin Award.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @04:52PM
Cats lie down with blind dogs. The dog appreciates the physical contact.
Birds. Lists of interactions with humans, from seagulls harassing people walking along with a bag of fries, knowing that they will be fed some despite laws against feeding them, mice that sneak into warehouses as deliveries are being made, pigeons that figure out the predator owls on buildings are fake, etc.
Animals that normally predate on other animals have a bit of a truce behaviour around scarce resources such as water holes. Seems that friendly humans are also a niche that many species exploit, even when it means not eating other species co-habiting with humans.
(Score: 2) by oumuamua on Thursday April 01 2021, @04:40PM (4 children)
Those squirrels are smart, smarter than a NASA engineer with too much time on his hands:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZFjoX2cGg [youtube.com]
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday April 01 2021, @06:29PM
Speaking of NASA engineers, check out this artist's rendition [ibb.co] of a NASA engineer (with original photo inset to the lower left corner).
(Score: 2) by leon_the_cat on Thursday April 01 2021, @08:07PM
They also move with incredible speed and accuracy. Human eye can't follow a squirrel fight. Plus they have razor sharp claws.
Moral of the story : Don't fuck with squirrels they may look cute and cuddly but they have superpowers.
(Score: 2) by leon_the_cat on Thursday April 01 2021, @08:23PM (1 child)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjrWOuxnGu8 [youtube.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 02 2021, @06:37PM
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @06:03PM (4 children)
Over a period of 20 years they have:
1) chewed holes in my gas grill hose
2) destroyed my gas grill cover
3) chewed up my air conditioner unit hoses
4) chewed up my water hose
5) broke into my attic and caused thousands in damages
6) destroyed multiple bird nests (blue birds, robins, cardinals)
I no longer think of these rodents as "cute" and refer to them as RATS. Run 'em over.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @06:56PM (1 child)
Oh, look! hemo does post AC!
(Score: 1) by hemocyanin on Friday April 02 2021, @02:33AM
Nope -- wasn't me. Squirrels haven't done me any harm and brake for them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 01 2021, @07:17PM (1 child)
Those would be N American Greys?
Reds are more discerning in what they (try to) eat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 02 2021, @10:59AM
I had reds nest in the attic one winter, cut down the walnut tree that was close to the house and they didn't come back. There are greys and (European?) black squirrels in the area too, but the reds don't let them on my street.