What is the function of the squirrel's big tail?
The most conspicuous thing about small squirrels is that they have a big tail, which is always cocked high, and sometimes even looks a little larger than the squirrel itself, so what is the role of the squirrel's big tail?
In fact, this has a lot to do with the lifestyle of squirrels. Squirrels are often referred to as tree squirrel families that inhabit trees, and they belong to the rodent family of mammals. This family also includes relatives such as giant squirrels, flower squirrels, and rock squirrels, which are also regarded as squirrels in the broad sense, but live on the ground and have a tail slightly smaller than that of tree squirrels. Tree squirrels usually jump from one branch to another branch, and the big tail can help it maintain balance when jumping, and can be used as a rudder to grasp the direction, and even have the role of paragliding when falling. In the hot summer, the tail can be used as a parasol; when it is cold, this big furry tail can be covered with a quilt. In addition, tree squirrels can also use their tails to hang upside down on the tree to perform various difficult actions.
Not only that, squirrels will swing their tails back and forth to confuse enemies when fighting, and when necessary, the tail can also be used as a shield, and squirrels also like to shake their tails to say hello. When dealing with a common enemy, squirrels coordinate their actions through "tail language." Studies have found that Dongmei tree squirrels can also use their tails to represent social status, and what is more interesting is that contrary to most animals, the squirrel "landlords" who occupy territory like to lower their tails, but the tails of those "poor farmers" and "homeless people" are held high. Scientists half ridicule and half speculation said that after all, the squirrel tail is large enough, maybe it will save more effort to lower the tail a little?
And in the close relative of the tree squirrel, the California ground squirrel, scientists also found another magic use of the tail - infrared fraud. Rattlesnakes are the natural enemies of ground squirrels, in order to deal with snakes, ground squirrels have tried all kinds of methods, if they can fight, they can even scratch and bite, but they can't kick sand into the eyes of snakes. More ground squirrel mothers picked up snake molts and chewed them up for themselves and their children to eat, confusing the smell of rat snakes. When these tricks do not work, the ground squirrel mother, in order to protect the child behind her, will quickly wag her tail in front of the snake to speed up the blood flow, increase the infrared radiation by heating the tail, so that the snake perceived by infrared light mistakenly thinks that the opposite is a big guy and retreats.
