Real-Life Weirdness

[cptbutton]

NOW ENDS THE AGE OF MAN!

Are ground squirrels actually meat-eaters? New California study finds they eat voles

Videos, photos and direct observations show 74 cases of California ground squirrels hunting, eating and fighting over voles, which are tiny rodents, between June 10 and July 30, the study said.

[dcarson]

Most herbivores will eat meat they are just bad at getting it. Cows and horses will eat nestlings of ground dwelling birds if thye make the mistake of building the nest in a pasture that cows or horses are in. I can speak for personal experience that if you sit a burger on a plate on top of a fence post and turn to talk to someone when you look back it will be gone and the horse will be chewing.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

NOW ENDS THE AGE OF MAN!

Are ground squirrels actually meat-eaters? New California study finds they eat voles

Getting a 404 error. But, yeah, a lot of herbivores will eat meat when they can get it. Although, if the description is accurate and the squirrels are actively hunting voles, rather than just snacking on them when they get the chance, it may be appropriate to class them as predatory omnivores.

Then again, that may be activity associated with only one population of squirrels, with them being outliers in having learned predatory behaviour.

[ericthered]

We are noticing more and more rodents are omnivorous. Female Chipmunks like to eat snakes when they're pregnant. Rats have long been noted as having a carnivorous streak.

[DeadParrot]

I read that one about the squirrels. Not that surprising. They have no problems feeding off fat laced birdseed treats.

As long as the squirrels don't learn cooperative hunting. Like the chipmunks in a sci fi short story I read years ago. They started on road kill and by the end of the story were hunting larger two legged prey.

[Dr. Beckenstein]

A German School had a robot as a teacher this week.

Surely, this will not go wrong. Nor will the robot causes nightmares.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by ericthered

We are noticing more and more rodents are omnivorous. Female Chipmunks like to eat snakes when they're pregnant. Rats have long been noted as having a carnivorous streak.

I recall seeing, when I was little, a cage in the pet department of a Walmart where white mice were very clearly demonstrating opportunistic cannibalism.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by RyanW

I recall seeing, when I was little, a cage in the pet department of a Walmart where white mice were very clearly demonstrating opportunistic cannibalism.

Pretty certain that's just a side effect of being stuck in Walmart. But, yeah, cannibalism seems fairly common amongst rodents, particularly filial cannibalism. The predation aspect of the squirrels - actively hunting down prey rather than just eating some meat they come across - is more surprising (although I believe it's fairly common in rats).

Actually, I just remembered hearing an account of a pack of squirrels killing and eating a stray dog. Looks like it happened in Russia (<insert Russian Reversal joke>) back in 2005 (or at least that's the earliest story I could find).

[L.J.Steele]

To get rid of ‘drug-addicted’ rats, Houston police clean up evidence room

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...evidence-room/


Can anyone say “Cocaine Rat Swarm?”

This could easily be a plot-element for any number of procedural mysteries, esp if a rat took some key bit of evidence into its nest. (We’ll ignore the chain of custody issues….)

Add in some mythos/magic evidence and you can get sentient rat swarms, eldric rat swarms, a gang of pi-rats....