Leaving home benefits male squirrels but not females, study shows

Male red squirrels in North America that live away from their home population reap better benefits in lifewhile female squirrels do not,astudy from the University of Albertahas found.

The study, released Friday morning, looks at 30 years worth of data on the red squirrel population in the Yukon. It found that male squirrels that leave the place they were borntend to live longer and have more offspring.

AprilMartinig, a doctoralcandidate in the department of biological sciences, is the lead researcher of the study.

Male squirrels that move away tend to live six months longer than the average squirrel, which has a life span of approximately five years, Martinig said.

Red squirrels arethe common species seen around Edmonton.

"They have red hair with some black and some beige or white on their chest they also make a lot of rattles, which is this high-pitched alarm callthey vocalize to say where their territory is," she said.

Male squirrels also have better outcomes in mating becausefemale squirrels prefer to mate with newcomer males.

Leaving home benefits male squirrels but not females, study shows

4 years ago

Duration 2:05

April Martinig is the lead researcher of a study looking at male red squirrels in North America.

Female squirrels don't benefit

The study also discovered that female squirrels don't benefit as much when they leavetheir home turf.

When females move away, they lose the support of nearby family.

"Despite that they're a ratherasocial species in the winter, when it's really cold, like right now, theywill nest with relatives especially when they're the same sex and females,"Martinigsaid.

"When you stayhome as a female, you get a lot of investment from your mother and also your female siblings."

Intergenerational effect

Martiniglooked at data gathered from 2,000 red squirrels. Thestudy also found an intergenerational effect, something she didn't expect.

Despite havinghighly attractive fathers, the sons of squirrels that had moved did not have high levels of offsprings like their parent.

"For female squirrels,what we ended up seeing was the same effect but for their daughters ... so for males that left, their sons had a negative effect. And then for females that left, their daughters were negatively affected as well."