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At my parents house, the squirrels often kill and eat bluejays. I'm the winter they hide the wings in snow drifts. When the spring thaw comes there will be doze

At my parents house, the squirrels often kill and eat bluejays. I'm the winter they hide the wings in snow drifts. When the spring thaw comes there will be dozens of disembodied bird wings scattered around the yard. I thought it was common knowledge that squirrels are opportunistic. They're rodents. They eat whatever they can get.

echelon 2y ago
I've always known squirrels to eat birds. The fact that scientists are new to this fact is what is surprising. It might just be that the headline is bad and the literature is simply describing vole predation. Anecdata: https://www.reddit.com/r/zoology/comments/2bypwd/i_saw_a_gray_squirrel_eating_a_bird_how_common_is/ https://www.reddit.com/r/zoology/comments/2bypwd/i_saw_a_gra... https://www.reddit.com/r/birding/comments/1d1ddnv/birdhouses_baby_birds_and_squirrels_are_squirrels/ https://www.reddit.com/r/birding/comments/1d1ddnv/birdhouses... https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/14715zj/squirrel_eating_bird/ https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/14715zj/squirrel_eatin... (graphic video) https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/dsws02/a_squirrel_eating_the_head_of_a_sparrow/ https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/dsws02/a_squirrel_eati... (different graphic video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9F-lnJtkDA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9F-lnJtkDA (graphic video eating a mouse) etc. The really graphic stuff you tend to see when you look for it is the raptors eating the squirrels. Bird eats squirrel eats bird. The circle of life.
- salynchnew 2y ago
  > It might just be that the headline is bad and the literature is simply describing vole predation. Correct! From the article: > Any supplementation of their vegetarian diet was historically believed to primarily occur through eating insects or, on occasion, nest predation of eggs or young hatchlings (Bradley and Marzluff 2003). > Roughly 30 years ago, Callahan (1993) radically altered our perception of squirrels by characterizing as many as 30 species of the family Sciuridae as facultative predators of small vertebrates capable of killing and consuming adult fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals (Table S1). The study is itself a detailed breakdown of changes in foraging behavior linkedin to "food pulses" (which I guess means the times when various food sources are available, a la acorns in the fall and sprouts in the spring).
- TheBigSalad 2y ago
  Maybe the scientists should have done a quick google before declaring nobody has seen this behavior before.
- xattt 2y ago
  In the context of H5N1, this gives some new insight of the likelihood of the virus jumping species. Birds are everywhere, squirrels in urban environments moreso.
  - hulitu 2y ago
    > In the context of H5N1, this gives some new insight of the likelihood of the virus jumping species. Birds are everywhere, squirrels in urban environments moreso. The H5N1 hype is not new. They have just reactivated now. My opinion is that the revenue of pharma giants has decreased after Covid, so they are looking at new sources of revenue.
ryukoposting 2y ago
Wow, that's... really gross. The wings, not the hunting. I knew squirrels would eat meat opportunistically but I wasn't aware that whole populations hunted particular animals systematically.
- LosEstupidos 2y ago
  [flagged]
tzs 2y ago
There are many different species of squirrel, and different species have different diets. Knowing nothing about where your parent's house is but guessing it is somewhere in the US if I had to bet I'd bet that the squirrels there are Eastern gray squirrels. They are native to the Eastern US but have taken up residence in much of the rest of the country. One of the reasons they do well outside of their native habitat is that they are not at all picky eaters. So yes it was common knowledge that they will sometimes kill other animals and eat them. The article is about California ground squirrels. Until recently they were not known to eat meat. BTW, how the Eastern gray squirrels spread so much is interesting. As cities grew people in them wanted to have some connection to nature, and as part of that a lot of places wanted to have some wild animals in their city parks. Tree squirrels were a common choice. So how do you get squirrels to take up residence in your park? Your first thought is probably that you send some people out to the nearest wild forest, trap enough squirrels to form a viable breeding population, and release them in the parks. The problem with that is that in many cities the parks don't have native trees. People want parks to have trees that aren't too tall, with reasonably wide canopies, and that don't grow too close together. That's great if you are someplace where the native trees are like that. If you are someplace like say Seattle where the native trees are tall narrow Fir trees that close together what they did was import trees from the Eastern US. The native squirrels wouldn't necessarily eat the nuts from those non-native trees. That was the case in Seattle. Western gray squirrels really only want to eat the nuts from native trees. And so to get squirrels that would be happy in a park full of trees imported from the Eastern US cities then imported squirrels from the Eastern US. And since Eastern gray squirrels are not picky eaters they are also happy with native nuts, and quickly spread beyond the parks.
- Loughla 2y ago
  They're mostly red squirrels.
- gazook89 2y ago
  In Minneapolis, MN, there is a historical plaque that notes the day and location of the first gray squirrels introduced to the city as a gift from Seattle/Washington. It’s in Loring Park. So kind of opposite direction.

echelon 2y ago

I've always known squirrels to eat birds. The fact that scientists are new to this fact is what is surprising. It might just be that the headline is bad and the literature is simply describing vole predation. Anecdata: https://www.reddit.com/r/zoology/comments/2bypwd/i_saw_a_gray_squirrel_eating_a_bird_how_common_is/ https://www.reddit.com/r/zoology/comments/2bypwd/i_saw_a_gra... https://www.reddit.com/r/birding/comments/1d1ddnv/birdhouses_baby_birds_and_squirrels_are_squirrels/ https://www.reddit.com/r/birding/comments/1d1ddnv/birdhouses... https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/14715zj/squirrel_eating_bird/ https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/14715zj/squirrel_eatin... (graphic video) https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/dsws02/a_squirrel_eating_the_head_of_a_sparrow/ https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/dsws02/a_squirrel_eati... (different graphic video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9F-lnJtkDA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9F-lnJtkDA (graphic video eating a mouse) etc. The really graphic stuff you tend to see when you look for it is the raptors eating the squirrels. Bird eats squirrel eats bird. The circle of life.

salynchnew 2y ago
> It might just be that the headline is bad and the literature is simply describing vole predation. Correct! From the article: > Any supplementation of their vegetarian diet was historically believed to primarily occur through eating insects or, on occasion, nest predation of eggs or young hatchlings (Bradley and Marzluff 2003). > Roughly 30 years ago, Callahan (1993) radically altered our perception of squirrels by characterizing as many as 30 species of the family Sciuridae as facultative predators of small vertebrates capable of killing and consuming adult fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals (Table S1). The study is itself a detailed breakdown of changes in foraging behavior linkedin to "food pulses" (which I guess means the times when various food sources are available, a la acorns in the fall and sprouts in the spring).
TheBigSalad 2y ago
Maybe the scientists should have done a quick google before declaring nobody has seen this behavior before.
xattt 2y ago
In the context of H5N1, this gives some new insight of the likelihood of the virus jumping species. Birds are everywhere, squirrels in urban environments moreso.
- hulitu 2y ago
  > In the context of H5N1, this gives some new insight of the likelihood of the virus jumping species. Birds are everywhere, squirrels in urban environments moreso. The H5N1 hype is not new. They have just reactivated now. My opinion is that the revenue of pharma giants has decreased after Covid, so they are looking at new sources of revenue.

ryukoposting 2y ago

Wow, that's... really gross. The wings, not the hunting. I knew squirrels would eat meat opportunistically but I wasn't aware that whole populations hunted particular animals systematically.

LosEstupidos 2y ago
[flagged]

tzs 2y ago

There are many different species of squirrel, and different species have different diets. Knowing nothing about where your parent's house is but guessing it is somewhere in the US if I had to bet I'd bet that the squirrels there are Eastern gray squirrels. They are native to the Eastern US but have taken up residence in much of the rest of the country. One of the reasons they do well outside of their native habitat is that they are not at all picky eaters. So yes it was common knowledge that they will sometimes kill other animals and eat them. The article is about California ground squirrels. Until recently they were not known to eat meat. BTW, how the Eastern gray squirrels spread so much is interesting. As cities grew people in them wanted to have some connection to nature, and as part of that a lot of places wanted to have some wild animals in their city parks. Tree squirrels were a common choice. So how do you get squirrels to take up residence in your park? Your first thought is probably that you send some people out to the nearest wild forest, trap enough squirrels to form a viable breeding population, and release them in the parks. The problem with that is that in many cities the parks don't have native trees. People want parks to have trees that aren't too tall, with reasonably wide canopies, and that don't grow too close together. That's great if you are someplace where the native trees are like that. If you are someplace like say Seattle where the native trees are tall narrow Fir trees that close together what they did was import trees from the Eastern US. The native squirrels wouldn't necessarily eat the nuts from those non-native trees. That was the case in Seattle. Western gray squirrels really only want to eat the nuts from native trees. And so to get squirrels that would be happy in a park full of trees imported from the Eastern US cities then imported squirrels from the Eastern US. And since Eastern gray squirrels are not picky eaters they are also happy with native nuts, and quickly spread beyond the parks.

Loughla 2y ago
They're mostly red squirrels.
gazook89 2y ago
In Minneapolis, MN, there is a historical plaque that notes the day and location of the first gray squirrels introduced to the city as a gift from Seattle/Washington. It’s in Loring Park. So kind of opposite direction.