14 August 07
Shake Your Tail
A study at UC Davis shows that California ground squirrels generate measurable heat when waving their tails around rattlesnakes, which apparently helps deter the snakes from attacking them. (Adults are resistant and even immune to rattlesnake venom; the snakes go after the younger squirrels, which don’t have enough blood to make them safe.)
I have occasion to watch this tail-wagging, though there aren’t really any rattlesnakes on the valley floor, here. The adults chase each other around outside my window at work all day long, tails thrashing, in a kind of come-hither routine that involves lots of running, lots of thrashing, lots of sniffing, and very, very rarely, a copulation. They do seem to use their tails in communication as well….
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Some lemur — ringtailed? maybe more than one — rubs scent from its wrist glands onto its long tail and then waves the tail around in a fashion rather like the squirrels’. Makes me wonder.
Hey, Pica, I love to think of these squirrels, lemurs and other swishy-tailed beasts communicating with one another and with their environment by means of tail-speak!