Ground squirrels usually eat seeds and nuts, but in a park in California, these cute, furry creatures have turned into carnivorous killers, mercilessly hunting down voles to peel the flesh from their bones.
The unusual new behavior, which researchers caught on camera in Briones Regional Park in Contra Costa County, could be driven by an explosion in vole numbers, according to a new study published Wednesday (Dec. 18) in the Journal of Ethology.
Students have been observing squirrels in Briones Regional Park for 12 years as part of a long-term research project at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and the University of California, Davis. In all that time, researchers had never witnessed anything like what they saw in the summer of 2024.
Study lead author Jennifer Smith, an associate professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, co-leads the park research project — called “Team Squirrel.” When two students first…
