Squirrel Has Hot Tail to Tell Snakes
Posted by Miqe on August 15, 2007
Its infrared glow keeps rattlesnakes at bay
Squirrels are not as helpless as they may seem when confronted by rattlesnakes eager to make dinner of their pups. A new study reveals one of their most powerful tactics: the rodents heat their bushy tails and wave them back and forth to warn infrared-sensitive snakes they will not get fast food.
Infrared video showed that California ground squirrels’ tails warmed by several degrees, up to 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit), when threatened by northern Pacific rattlesnakes, which detect the infrared glow from small mammals using so-called pit organs in their noses. But no heating occurred while the rodents defended against gopher snakes, which lack such heat seekers, according to a report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.
SQUIRREL TAIL HEATS UP: The presence of an infrared-sensitive rattlesnake causes the California ground squirrel to heat its tail [top], whereas an infrared-blind gopher snake does not [bottom].
From Scientific American
