Robotic Squirrels enlisted in Rattlesnake study
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Researchers at the prestigious University of California, Davis have constructed 'robosquirrels' (pictured) to help study the interaction between real California ground squirrels and the rattlesnakes that prey on them. The joint programme with researchers from San Diego State University was funded by a grant of $390,000 from the National Science Foundation.
The squirrels were built by the engineering lab of Professor Sanjay Joshi (Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UCD) and have mechanisms for simulating the movement of a tail in a realistic manner and heating said tail. In the wild, a squirrel confronted with a rattlesnake will flatten out and elongate its posture so that it is pointing head first in relation to the snake and wave its tail, which then heats up. The research team found that the snakes responded only to the heat and not the movement, which would have been impossible to separate were experiments to be performed with the assistance of a live squirrel.
Exactly why the squirrels remain in the vicinity of the rattlesnakes and behave in a manner the snakes can detect remains unknown, although it has been speculated that the squirrels may be attempting to use their heated tails to distract the snakes from more important targets such as the head or chest.
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