As so often seems to be the case, the reporter seems surprised squirrels are acting purposefully and commuicating.
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What we may hear as nonsensical chattering the Auburn University biology professor perceives as the back and forth of squirrels communicating with one another — and with other animals, as well.
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My favorite nugget from the article: squirrels apparently talk smack to predators. We’ve always referred to that as “scolding,” but that may be close to the truth.
Which of the squirrel vocalizations would a squirrel caught in a trap be likely to make? The squirrels that the critter guys trapped from our porch roof were definitely vocalizing when we would come near the trap, but I would have described the sound as more of a grunt than sounding like any of those descriptions. I’m pretty sure we can rule out muk-muk, but I’m wondering which of the other three it would have been.
ETA: It was a humane live trap, so the squirrels were probably scared but not in pain. They moved around in there, apparently looking for a way out, a lot.
To drive that home,” Lishak said, the male squirrel “produces the same solicitation call that babies give. It means: ‘Don’t fear me. I’m just looking to copulate.’ ”
I’ve tried that line in a bar many times. I quickly got labeled “NICE squirrel guy”
The squirrels on my campus/workplace are very bold. The other day, one went right up next to a student who was sitting on a long concrete block, apparently hoping for a snack. The student told him, “Dude, I don’t have anything for you.”
I don’t think the message got through. He said it in Human English.
My SO and I are big forest hikers, and we always noticed the vigilance and chatter of the squirrels.
Now we can try to differentiate between the sounds, with a little more information to go by.
Thanks for sharing this.
Nah. We humans use an ‘s’ to pluralize words & adjectives to further define them. We don’t say “muk muk”, “boob boob”, or “tit tit” but things like “big boobs” or “nice tits” - not repeating the same word twice to further describe it. Given I’ve met some humans who have the intelligence level of the average squirrel, perhaps even slightly less, I thought they’d do the same thing.
The squirrels in the park here seem to chitter (make that crunchy/bruxing noise with their teeth). I assumed it meant the same as it does when my pet rats do it: “You brought me food! You’re so nice! Hand it over.” Frequently they do it after climbing up on to the bench beside me and plonking down about six inches away to stare.
Park squirrels are amazingly tame, however. I’m not about to try it for real, but I give about even odds I could pet one of the little boogers if I gave him a french fry first. They may speak a different dialect than their wild cousins.
The squirrels in the park here seem to chitter (make that crunchy/bruxing noise with their teeth). I assumed it meant the same as it does when my pet rats do it: “You brought me food! You’re so nice! Hand it over.” Frequently they start right after climbing up on to the bench beside me and plonking down about six inches away to stare.
Park squirrels are amazingly tame, however. I’m not about to try it for real, but I give about even odds I could pet one of the little boogers if I gave him a french fry first. They may just have learned that staring and chittering strikes humans as feedably cute.
