A horrific discovery was made by a University of Alberta biologist. Jessica Haines discovered that make red squirrels sometimes kill the offspring of other males, so that they might have another shot at fatherhood.
This strange discovery was made by chance when Haines saw the act of killing during her routine fieldwork back in 2014. This made her want to investigate more, and she came to some conclusions.
Why do male squirrels kill the rivals?
Scientists have never spoken about this before, but it appears that red squirrels tend to kill the pups of their rivals. “The offspring are not his own, so he is reducing the success of his competitors,” explained Haines. And by doing that, he’s also hoping to increase his chances of fathering offspring.”
Squirrels might also choose to have to litters of pups when there is enough food. Therefore, in the years when there is food abundance, there might be more pups, and males tend to choose infanticide.
This behavior was not observed before, so her study is an important one. She published her findings in the journal, Ecology. However, her work is not done yet.
Upcoming research
Haines is determined to find out more. Squirrel pups were taken from their nests and their ears were tagged before they were put back in. This way, it will be easy for scientists to identify them. Additionally, the killer has identified thanks to genetic testing.
The violent side of red squirrels is definitely a strange one, and it can be hard to imagine that those small creatures are capable of that. “We were surprised to see this behavior in squirrels because they live alone in separate territories and do not monopolize a single female during the breeding season,” concluded Haines.
