Backyard Predators: When Ground Squirrels Go Carnivore

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You probably spot squirrels nibbling acorns in your yard, not hunting rodents. But this summer, researchers in Contra Costa County caught California ground squirrels chasing, killing, and eating voles for the first time on camera.

The discovery emerged from a 12-year study at Briones Regional Park, where from June to July 2024 biologists logged 74 squeal-inducing interactions between ground squirrels and California voles.

Shock hit the team when they tallied the results: 42 percent of those 74 encounters involved squirrels actively hunting and killing their tiny prey.

Lead author Jennifer E. Smith says, “This was shocking – squirrels are one of our most familiar animals, yet here’s a behavior none of us had ever seen before”.

Postdoc Sonja Wild recalls undergraduates striding in with video proof: “I could barely believe my eyes. Once we realized what was happening, we saw it almost every day”.

Researchers link the newfound carnivory to a vole population boom documented on iNaturalist – an overload of protein put these usually seed-munching rodents in hunting mode.

This upends our view of squirrels as strict granivores, recasting them as flexible omnivores capable of opportunistic carnivory when the buffet calls.

Now scientists are asking how this behavior might ripple through the local food web, influence squirrel reproduction, and whether it will persist after the vole feast fades.

Above all, this revelation reminds us that even creatures we think we know can still surprise us – a tribute to the power of long-term ecology studies and a nudge to keep looking closer.