California squirrels, the little guys that we see around town sometimes and at all the turn-outs up and down the coast, have recently been discovered to have a very unique way of fending off rattlesnake attacks.
A little known fact about the California squirrel is that a full-grown, healthy squirrel can actually survive a rattlesnake bite with a developed immunity to the venom.
Small and weaker squirrels, however, can still succumb to the rattler attack.
To fight this vulnerability, a California squirrel, when faced with a rattler, can heat up its tail. The rattlesnake, which can sense infrared radiation from heat, takes the heated tail to mean that it has been discovered by the squirrel and has lost the element of surprise, causing the rattlesnake to just move on.
Researchers are not sure just how the squirrels cause their tails to heat up, but they think it may be by moving warm blood from the body core to the tail. They do know, however, thanks to some careful observations, that it is not a reflex, but a premeditated action.
Researchers have discovered that when the squirrels sense a gopher snake, they will vigorously move their tails, but will not heat them up like they do when they sense a rattlesnake.
They make the same tail movement with a rattler, but add the heated tail to their defense arsenal. Researchers also observed that the squirrels will make more vigorous tail movements and generate even more heat in their tails when they sense a rattlesnake during cooler night temperatures.
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