- cross-posted to:
- science@lemmy.ml
Nearly all herbivores being opportunistic omnivores and so on. And rodents even moreso.
Gray squirrels in my area will raid bird nests to feed on the eggs and young chicks. They also hunt and eat cicadas. They sometimes scavenge from animal carcasses and are known to gnaw on mammal bones (like from a dead deer) or even turtle shells for the calcium.
Chipmunks will catch and eat crickets, worms, and beetles as well as small reptiles or even frogs. Although I’ve not witnessed it, I bet they’d at least gnaw on animal bones for calcium.
However, I think hunting voles is kind of a bit more advanced / unique.
What makes the vole hunting remarkable is that these California ground squirrels developed a coordinated stalking technique - they actually track voles by scent and use ambush tactics similar to cats, which is extrmely unusual for rodents!
This is well known. Red squirrels are the largest predators of baby rabbits.
This will be great for my unit on adaptation!
“See this squirrel? It’s an absolute unit.”
Since when is this new? Squirrels have been eating meat for ages. Primarily insects. Go on YT and look for “Hornet King”. At the end of his videos, he often feeds the hornets’ larvae to chicken and (drumroll!) squirrels.
The vegans are gonna be pissed.
Edit: LOL, called it