THE GOLDEN MANTLED
GROUND SQUIRREL
by Ralph R. Huestis

Special Number - 1951

CONDITIONED BEHAVIOR

"It takes young squirrels a little while to accustom themselves to eating from visitors' hands."

It takes young squirrels a little while to accustom themselves to eating from visitor's hands. No critical test of this has been made, but by using experience at Government Headquarters as a criterion, it can be said that some young squirrels accept food the second or third day it is offered. Conditioning appears to be continuous over a long period for the biggest end presumably oldest individuals usually show the least hesitation. Even when young squirrels are taking food readily from the hand the bristling of the hairs on the tail show that the situation is producing considerable emotional disturbance. Emotionality in animals is difficult to estimate and this pilomotor response might be used in behavior experiments.

The greatest accumulation of squirrels in Crater Lake National Park is at the head of the Crater Wall Trail, immediately north of the Rim Parking Area. A dozen squirrels may often be seen here, begging, feeding, bickering with one another, or running home with the take. On August 8, 1938, a squirrel with full pouches was followed to its burrow which proved to be 220 yards west of the Crater Wall Trail on the edge of the fill for the shoulder of the Rim Road. The squirrel, which had been observed taking this route before, crossed the road twice to get to its burrow; once to the island at the Y just at the top of the hill and then across the south fork of the highway that leads to the Rim Road.

After considerable observation of known individual squirrels, the writer came to the conclusion that the squirrels with home sites a considerable distance from the head of the Crater Wall Trail filled their cheeks with more peanuts, before starting on the home trip, than did the squirrels with a shorter distance to go. The assumption that rodents acted as though they were conversant with the axiom, that you must have a paying load for a long haul, greatly interested park visitors although some said they would like to believe it but just couldn't. Dr. Kenneth Gordan of Oregon State College, basing his observation on marked squirrels seen daily, came independently to this same conclusion: the squirrel with the longer route home takes the bigger load.

". . . filled their cheeks with more peanuts . . ."

Young of the year or yearling squirrels early in the season, not infrequently dig a small hole, after they have gone a short distance from a feeding area, and put their peanuts into it. The hole is then carefully covered with earth pushed into it and the site may be camouflaged by loose dirt dusted over it with brushing motions of the forepaws. Older squirrels dig these caches much more infrequently presumably because they have well established the routine of taking their food home. Late in the season of 1938 a squirrel was observed digging such a hole in the level ground just east of the Community House. This individual deposited some peanuts and had almost completed the earth cover when it was interrupted by the advent of another squirrel which started a territorial squabble. The two animals engaged in a running fight which took them as far as the west end of the Community House and must have occupied fifteen or twenty seconds. To the astonishment of the writer, one of the two, and presumably the one which had been engaged in covering its little hoard, returned to the site and completed the covering process including the refinement of brushing loose dirt over the site.

Not the least educative of these rodents' reactions is the series of maneuvers gone through by a timid squirrel upon being offered food in hand, since this traces, in physical outline, the mental shuttling which is so often a prelude to making up one's mind. Happy approach may take place until proximity to the large food- bearing animal lays on the paralysing hand of fear. Approach is checked and turned into precipitous flight. At a safer distance the possibility of food-getting again becomes the commanding stimulus and the squirrel will return and this time accept the proffered material. As soon as food is being taken into the mouth a squirrel is much "tamer" and may often be lifted by the fore paws as soon as it has placed these on the donor's hand to obtain support while reaching for the food with its mouth. Squirrels will frequently sit contentedly on an outstretched hand or even climb about on visitors who remain still but are not patient with attempts at petting and they will struggle and bite vigorously if they are seized by the body or tail.

"Squirrels will frequently sit contentedly on an outstretched hand . . ."