Animal researchers in California have discovered human-like personality traits in squirrels that anybody watching one raiding nuts from a bird table could probably have guessed: they are bold, aggressive, athletic and sociable.
The study from University of California, Davis, and published this month in Animal Behavior, claims to be the first to document personality in golden-mantled ground squirrels, prevalent in the western US and Canada.
According to the research, which included a series of scientific tests on the rodents, such as observing how they react to their mirror image, and approaching them in the wild to see how long it was before they ran away, some squirrels are more outgoing than others.
The data, collected over a three-year period, led the analysts to conclude that bolder and more active squirrels covered more ground and were more successful in amassing resources.
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“To see them chitter and skitter, stop and then scurry, the fact that ground squirrels have personalities may not seem surprising,” an introduction to the study on the UC Davis website said.
“But the scientific field of animal personality is relatively young, as is the recognition that there are ecological consequences of animal personality.”
