Scientists Study The Scream Of The Squirrel

SimianOverlord writes "The BBC details a recent breakthrough in Squirrel to Man understanding. Scientist James Hare, in his study of the North American Ground Squirrel, noted peculiar behaviour; they appeared to 'lose their voice' while communicating, producing only a 'breathy whisper' in sound ranges audible to the human ear. On a hunch, the intrepid boffin borrowed a 'bat detector', which translates inaudible ultrasound into the human hearing range, and discovered the Squirrels were using a whole range of distinct ultrasound messages which can give gradated threat warnings or be targetted to family members, all without any predators detecting the message, or easily pinpointing the location of the caller. Though it has been known for some time rodents use ultrasound, this is believed to be the first time that it has a proven purpose, and the content of the messages have been deciphered."

Well...

[hookedup]

If they need to capture specimens to test, there's always this [harvard.edu] method.

Re:Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

And after we have enough specimens, we should be able to tell if they're all as evil as we thought! http://www.deadsquirrel.com/ [deadsquirrel.com]

Each other

[dabug911]

Now if we could just learn to understand eachother we would be set.

Re:Each other

[RealityMogul]

I wish they'd understand that when I put new screening up in the attic windows, it's not suppose to be a game for them to see who can chew through it first.

Teaching aids

[Engineer-Poet]

If you used devices to reinforce the instruction and recall, perhaps they wouldn't repeat their mistakes.

Some wires across the outside of the screens, hooked to the flash capacitor of a scrap disposable-camera flash unit, might do the trick. You'll have to find a way to force the unit on, though; if it stays off for too long all the charge will leak away and its usefulness as a memory aid will be nil.

Bushy-Tailed Rats

[pipingguy]

Other rodent performance evaluation. [harvard.edu]

Ground squirrels = gophers

[jgaynor]

Crazy Brits - apparently the call gophers 'ground squirrels'. Squirrels, as we all well know, communicate by singing in poorly made flash movies [frashii.com].

Re:Ground squirrels = gophers

[will_die]

Actually it is more of an american problem.
Gophers are members of the Geomyidae and native to the Americas.
The creature from this study is a Spermophilus richardsonii, family Sciuridae, commonly known as the Richardson's Ground Squirrel.
However it is very common in the US to call any larger ground based burrowing rodents a gopher.

Re:Ground squirrels = gophers

[dnahelix]

Here are some pictures [scarysquirrel.org] of the gopher, I mean Richardson's Ground Squirrel.

ps. I love Ray Bradbury, but he's old and wrong.

Re:Ground squirrels = gophers

[molo]

However it is very common in the US to call any larger ground based burrowing rodents a gopher.

Hrm, no, not really. Most people use specific names. eg: Woodchuck [wikipedia.org] Prairie dog [wikipedia.org] California Ground Squirrel [wikipedia.org]

Maybe "gopher" is more commonly used in the southern vocabulary?

-molo

Content of squirrel messages

[OgdEnigmaX]

It's been shown that not only do squirrels communicate with each other for practical purposes, but they also have a fairly sophisticated system of music [threebrain.com]. Quoth the small woodland bard:

When you're a kid and you wanna go "wheeeee," but you ain't got drugs yet
You hold out for your life
Hold on to your little gonads...and strife.

We could learn a lot from the little guys, no?

wow

[Tumbleweed]

That's pretty nutty stuff.

Re:wow

[Tackhead]

> That's pretty nutty stuff.

Funny you should say that... [funnyjunk.com]

Re:Nice to know such important research happens

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you think that doing research in one area detracts from research in another?

Using your logic, we should be mad at you for spending time on Slashdot instead of using that time researching "molecular manufacturing, or stem cells, or space flight".

Get on it, you lazy bum!

I am, you insensitive clod!

[Anonymous Coward]

I am researching molecular manufacturing. I'm just waiting for the damn compiler to finish.

But it does detract. It detracts money.

[Chemisor]

Specifically, it detracts funding from important projects into these rather pointless studies. Should we not spend money on researching asteroid mining or something, before we decide to fund studies of the sex life of squirrels?

Or vice-versa...

[R2.0]

You realize that if this post was about research into asteroid mining, your alter ego would be saying "Why are we spending money on something so pointless when we could be trying to better understand the ecosystem where we live right now?"

It all depends on whose ox is gored.

Something that I'm missing?

[Itsik]

Apart from the fact that we now know that they use a wider range of sound frequencies isn't it somewhat presumtuous to say that the "...content of the messages have been deciphered."

Leaf Guard . . .

[Dausha]

Unbeknownst to those scientists, the Leaf Guard gutter people have been using the ultrasound detectors for some time. If you've heard the radio commercials (or seen the commercials on cable), you'll note that the squirrels are speaking in full, English sentences.

That might seem extraordinary, but consider that the squirrels in question live in North America, it's pretty obvious that they'd start picking up our language. However, there are small enclaves of squirrels who speak Spanish and other languages. Just goes to show what a blended society the squirrels have.

Seriously though, I'm surprised this discovery hadn't aleady happened. Heck, if I had a ultrasonic-to-sonic thing-a-ma-jig like that, I'd have pointed it at all sorts of things by now--people, birds (who says what we hear is all they squawk), squirrels, cars, etc.

And if you'll notice here...

[Wandering Wombat]

... at 31,357 Hz, it clearly means "That big thing with the bat-detector is starting to freak me out. Lets bite his nuts."

From a whisper to a scream.

[sporktoast]

I wonder what kind of ultrasonic scream the squirrel mentioned here (Squirrel Cop) [207.70.82.73] made.

Don't listen!

[CyberDong]

They're evil, and they're out to get us. Think of the children [scarysquirrel.org]!

Hmm....

[GreyOrange]

So thats how Dr. Doolittle communicated with the rodents.(Ultrasound message follows).

Content of the message was...

[psyconaut]

"Send more acorns...our base is under attack!"

Yes!

[Jahf]

All RIGHT! Now I can finally get a properly designed squirrel call [gamecalls.net]! The one I've got drives em nuts for a minute or two, but they adapt. Johnny Stewart, get me an ultrasonic squirrel call NOW!

BTW, these things can also be made to sound like small monkeys if you close your hand over the opening, waggle the rubber part, and repeatedly allow the opening to open/close :)

Squirrel translator

[jtheory]

Reminds me of one of my favorite Far Side cartoons; there's a professor-type guy walking down the street testing his new dog language translator... and there's an angry dog saying "Hey! Hey! Hey!!" at a mailman, a lonely dog howling "Heeeyyyyy" on a hill, an excited dog saying "Hey!" as its owner offers a treat.

I have a suspicion the squirrel communication is much along the same lines.

They can communicate, sure, but...

[Transcendent]

...now they just need to learn how to dodge a damn car in the road!

They seem smart in that article, but driving home today I'll probably watch one sitting on the curb, and for some reason runs across the road ONLY when the car is in range... not to mention the ones that run back and forth trying to dodge it - the ones that get all the way across and for some reason decide to run back across the road (and into the car).

Smart communicators, dumb survivors.

now wiv zee ultrasound detector

[The Unabageler]

pesky moose and squirrel can no longer evade me!

Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts

[Marxist Hacker 42]

At Oregon Institute of Technology, Klamath Falls, when I was there, the mating screams in spring just as we were trying to study for finals were always quite loud. As we had a large number of paintball geeks in the dorms, it was not unheard of to see pink, purple, flourescent yellow or orange ground squirels around campus during that time...I had no idea that the reason a whole nest of the suckers would go quiet when shot with a paint gun was because they switched to ultrasound.

Re:Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts

[nytes]

Squirrel 1: Sir, we are under attack.
Squirrel 2: Raise shields.
Squirrel 1: [Holds up large leaf with hole in it] Our shields are no match for their weapon systems, sir. But I believe that if we remodulate our communication frequencies, we will be undetectable to the enemy.
Squirrel 2: Make it so.

They are out to get us!

[Hinkkanen]

The truth is here [deadsquirrel.com]

I wonder how to build

[IBX]

a squirell-powered ultrasonic cleaning bath. There have been some solar panel-powered phones on the market already and I think our SquirellSonic(R) baths would be just as enviro-friendly and operate in outdoor setting.

I would maybe start with 2 product lines -the "Squirrel Companion" budget version (for university labs) and the heavy-duty "Squirrel Endeavor" model for demanding industry application. (Made of stainless steel and Teflon, with remote control and featuring multiple slots for up to 6 squirrels

Dog whistles...

[gardyloo]

I suppose that rattlesnakes and hawks are the squirrels' main predators, but surely coyotes have to take a toll. And if coyotes can hear those "silent" dog whistle things that we all know and love, then who's to say this silent scream stuff is really all that "selective" as the article says. Of course, ultrasound attenuates a bit faster than lower frequencies, so maybe it simply doesn't call predators from far away, and, instead, warns one's close neighbors.

Their next project:

[Alsee]

How many woodchuck chips would a woodchuck-chipper chuck if Chuck would chuck a woodchuck in a woodchuck-chipper?

-

Haven't we known this?

[J. T. MacLeod]

I just thought it was obvious, myself. [illwillpress.com]

Little Fuzzy

[Chuck1318]

Anyone remember the Little Fuzzy [amazon.com] books by H. Beam Piper? The humans colonizing the planet Zarathustra think the little native bipeds can't pass the "talk and build a fire" test for intelligence until they start to listen in the ultrasonic range. . .