Compassionate Mama Squirrels

By Jeremy Mercer, Ode Magazine

In the most recent example of animal compassion, a study published earlier this month by Nature Communications shows that orphaned baby squirrels are sometimes adopted by other squirrel moms.

Researchers from the University of Alberta have been monitoring the red squirrel population in the Kulane National Park in northern Canada for more than 20 years, but it was only recently that the doctoral student Jamie Gorrell discovered a curious phenomenon. While making his regular checks on squirrel nests, Gorrell found one nest had an extra pup in it. At first, he assumed he had erred in his earlier count, but then he realized the extra pup was older than the rest of the litter. Furthermore, this pup’s eyes were still shut and its muscles undeveloped, meaning it couldn’t have simply wandered over by itself. So what happened?

It turns out the mother of the mysterious extra pup had been eaten by a predator – perhaps a hawk or an owl – and a neighbouring squirrel noticed the nest had fallen silent. This squirrel went over to investigate, found orphaned pups, and brought one back to her own nest to raise as her own. Going back through their records, the researchers determined there had been similar adoptions over the years and the key was that the two mothers were always related, perhaps sisters or cousins.

“Natural selection is about promoting your own genes, passing on your genetic lineage, so a female adopting a relative helps pass on her own genes, the genes she has in common with that juvenile,” Gorrell says.

Image Credit: Ryan W. Taylor

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Elvina A.

6:35AM PST on Jan 21, 2012

Beautiful!

send a green star

New G.

5:26PM PST on Jan 20, 2012

Thank you.

Suzanne L.

9:46AM PST on Jan 20, 2012

Whatever the reason for the behaviour, it's wonderful. I love the picture with the momma with the tiny baby in her arms.

Brian M.

12:49PM PST on Jan 4, 2012

Compassion ultimately has survival value; it comes as no surprise that it would be encoded in mammalian DNA.

Mary Beth M.

12:23PM PST on Jan 4, 2012

I would like to believe in the latter theory of kindness and compassion, seemingly more so than many of their human counterparts.

Snezana M.

2:22PM PST on Dec 17, 2011

Amazing!

Robert O.

12:34AM PDT on Sep 23, 2011

How nice. Thank you.

Abbe A.

9:19AM PDT on Sep 3, 2011

sweet

Justin B.

7:46AM PDT on Aug 15, 2011

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