You see I've got a few bird feeders and I love watching the sparrows, chickadees, cardinals and blue jays come in all day long. Makes me happy to help them survive a bitter winter.
Anyone who has done bird feeders before understands that it's a package deal however, and we have four neighbourhood squirrels that also appreciate a free meal. I however have no place in my heart for these furry tailed tree rats though, and when forced to choose between birds and squirrels, well, let's just say the squirrel can't quite die fast enough for me.
I will give my local squirrels a little credit, they are more tenacious and persistent than I am, coming back over and over and over again. I may have outsmarted them for a while by re-arranging the feeder they like on a long, high wire, out of their reach, and beyond leaping distance - and these little guys can really leap far. However one of them has learned to walk the wire, and still gets into the food.
The interesting part is that only one of the four squirrels (and the non-dominant black fur one at that) has cottoned onto this, while the others continue to be frustrated and instead settle for fallen seed only. I'm going to watch them over the next few days to see if they learn from one another, perhaps via language (with tail movement??) or example.
To me this has all the traits of a lab experiment, with newly learnable skills and rewards. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Perhaps they are indeed smarter than I am.
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