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Scientists document carnivorous squirrels in California who hunt voles

Squirrels are omnivores, eating nuts, fruit, small insects — and according to a study published in the Journal of Ethology — voles.
Sonja Wild, UC Davis
Squirrels are omnivores, eating nuts, fruit, small insects — and according to a study published in the Journal of Ethology — voles.

Squirrels are on the hunt in the California Bay Area.

Their target: local voles.

In a study published in the Journal of Ethology, a group of California ground squirrels were found hunting, killing and eating a vole. Lead researcher and behavioral ecologist Jennifer Smith from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire says her team witnessed this behavior in the twelfth year of a long term study.

The local vole population boomed this year. It was five to six times bigger than normal, Smith says the squirrels took advantage of that.

But this behavior is not new. "There's been accumulating evidence of one or two events within a species of a red squirrel taking a sparrow," she says, also noting, "They tend to go, try to take chickens."

But these accounts have been thought to be one-offs, generally.

With this study, the squirrels' entire process was captured via video — and shown to be a regular part of these squirrels' behavior.

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This episode was produced by Rachel Carlson and Jordan-Marie Smith and edited by Rebecca Ramirez, Christopher Intagliata and Ashley Brown. Tyler Jones checked the facts.

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Regina G. Barber
Regina G. Barber is Short Wave's Scientist in Residence. She contributes original reporting on STEM and guest hosts the show.
Jessica Yung
Jessica (she/her) is a producer for the Short Wave. She got her start in radio as a producer at Gimlet's narrative technology podcast Reply All, working on stories about QAnon, video games, cryptic tweets, and more. For the past two years, she has taught podcast production to high schoolers at Harlem Children's Zone, where she guided her students through making personal pieces about topics like jumping the MTA turnstile and complicated relationships with parents. Before she came to radio, she worked in print media, through various jobs at literary magazines and book publishers.
Jordan-Marie Smith
Jordan-Marie Smith is a producer with NPR's All Things Considered.
Rachel Carlson
Rachel Carlson (she/her) is a production assistant at Short Wave, NPR's science podcast. She gets to do a bit of everything: researching, sourcing, writing, fact-checking and cutting episodes.
Juana Summers is a political correspondent for NPR covering race, justice and politics. She has covered politics since 2010 for publications including Politico, CNN and The Associated Press. She got her start in public radio at KBIA in Columbia, Mo., and also previously covered Congress for NPR.