🐿️ California ground squirrels — the ones you see nibbling seeds in parks — have been caught hunting, killing, and eating voles for the first time ever documented by science.
For 12 years, researchers watched the same squirrel population in a California park. They had only ever seen them eat seeds, acorns, fruit, and the occasional insect. Then came a summer when vole numbers exploded — ten times the usual.
The squirrels didn’t hesitate. Adults and juveniles of both sexes began stalking, chasing, and pouncing on voles. They bit the necks, removed the heads, and stripped the fur before eating the meat. In one summer, scientists recorded 74 vole-kill events.
You S Blues
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