Crunch Time for Squirrels

By Timmy Watson in News on Dec 10, 2006 6:05PM

We have always had quite the love/hate relationship with squirrels. Sure, sometimes we think they are cute, but we usually hear some freaky incident involving a squirrel that intimidates us. We have one friend who grew up with a pet squirrel in his house, roaming free. He is somewhat apprehensive about squirrels now, so we assume it wasn't man's best friend. We recently heard another incident where a squirrel latched on to someone's shoe and wouldn't let go. After repeated shakes of the foot the squirrel finally flew and the gentleman fled the scene. Here, we assume the squirrel had rabies.

But, we really don't know much about the animal that is so prevalent in our lives. Joel Brown, a biologist at the University of Illinois-Chicago is out to change that.

Brown is researching what gets squirrels through the rough Chicago winter. "We're trying to get a glimpse of what your life is like if you are a city squirrel," said Brown, a biologist at the University of Illinois-Chicago. "And the winter time is ... crunch time for them."

The researchers will be taking skin samples of area squirrels to collect their DNA. In addition, collars will be placed on the squirrels to track their patterns and strings and other identifiers will be placed on acorns and other food to see where the squirrels are taking the food.

Thus far they have found that while squirrels may lose track of food they have stored, they are incredibly smart when it comes to the type of food they grab knowing how long the food will store. They also consider us allies in the art of food gathering. "As a general rule, (to squirrels) you are a vending machine," Brown said.

Squirrels, it seems, spend most their time in Winter searching, huddling, and darting and Brown hopes the study will provide some insight into what these actions accomplish.