“This was shocking,” Jennifer E. Smith, a biologist at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and the study’s lead author, said in a press release. “Squirrels are one of the most familiar animals to people. Yet here’s this never-before-encountered behavior that sheds light on how much we still have to learn.”

What?

Squirrels eat mice all the fucking time...

They compete for the same food source, but they're drastically different sizes, it's like if a silverback fought a chimpanzee. And after the fight the squirrel doesn't waste the free meal.

[–] TommySalami@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Grew up in Appalachia and this was common knowledge I thought. Everyone kinda knew that squirrels would sometimes eat meat, although there were guesses like opportunity or sickness as to why they did it.

I'm assuming it's a bunk article. No way this was just flying under the radar, unless the hunting part is new. Not sure I remember that being part of it.

[–] whatwhatwhatwhat@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Where I grew up, it wasn’t uncommon to see squirrels eating roadkill. Sometimes that roadkill was other squirrels.

Is it cannibalism if you eat your brother BUT he’s already dead and you didn’t kill him?

[–] smayonak@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

When it's not a matter of survival then we judge. I think most squirrels are pretty hard up for protein and they get it wherever they can.

Jeff Dahmer could have just bought a sandwich.

[–] generallynonsensical@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago

And baby birds. Nonsense article.

[–] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 days ago

Yeah, the biologist is sort of showing their ignorance for the free 15-minutes of fame to get into an article I suppose.