LSM1303 Animal Behaviour

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/magw21/126462740/)

Just like us human beings, the Squirrel World has its own “Facebook” social network! Who would have thought that we’d have so much in common with squirrels, after all?

According to Theodore Manno, a biologist at Auburn University in Alabama, “Squirrels with many connections tend to befriend squirrels that are like them; squirrels without many connections tend to befriend squirrels like them as well.” This is parallel to the way human beings behave, whereby we visit the Facebook profiles of people whom we are either friends with or interested in, and such friends are usually similar to us in terms of social networks.

However, one stark difference between human and squirrel social networks is the degree that they are “separated” by. People appear to be “separated” by five or six degrees, whereas for squirrels, it only takes three connections for one member of a population to get to any other. The existence of such social networks amongst squirrels then highlights the complexities of animal behaviour.

Manno postulates that most of the connections were between mating squirrels and their families, but friendship, too, exists in the squirrel world. This view is in line with Dunford’s (1977) findings, which put forths the trend of the retention of offspring within the mother’s territory, as well as the trend of dominant males defending one or more females, their offsprings and their combined home range. Squirrels thus become “friends” if they interact amicably just by meeting each other in the general course of things, due to them having preferred companionships.

It is also interesting to note that if more than 10% of the important members of the squirrel network were to be removed, the network would fragment, thereby becoming vulnerable to collapse. “Importance” in a squirrel colony generally refers to “adult males that are putting out feelers for sex opportunities, or adult females that are experienced at mating and want to have their choice of a bunch of males, as Manno discovered from his experiments.This effect is not confined to the squirrel population, though. Populations of other social animals, such as that of primates, fish, killer whales, and dolphins, could also experience comparable collapses when disrupted.

The study of social networks of animals brings out the different relationships of individuals with others, and this is imperative as it is often an aspect that we fail to take into consideration, due to our assumption that animal relationships are more or less homogeneous. Blumstein, an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California at Los Angeles, also acknowledges the importance of studying social networks, as diseases might be better controlled in animal societies if key networkers, which might become “super-spreaders,” are removed, perhaps temporarily.

So, the next time you plan on befriending someone, think twice before expanding your social network!

Example of Squirrel Social Network

References:

“Squirrels Network Like Facebook Friends” by Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News, 21 February 2008, http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/03/21/squirrel-social-network.html

Dunford, Christopher, 1977. Social system of round-tailed ground squirrels. Animal Behaviour, Vol. 25(4), 885-906.

Manno, Theodore G., 2008. Social networking in the Columbian ground squirrel, Spermophilus columbianus. Animal Behaviour, Vol. 75(4), 1221-1228.

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