Human activity represents a novel environmental challenge for wildlife, even for human-tolerant species that reside in human-dominated landscapes. Our long-term study of California ground squirrels (Otospermophilus beecheyi) ...

Anti-predator signals are common for animals living in social groups, for they act as a warning to conspecifics. Vocalizations, such as alarm calls, are common signals produced when social animals are faced with potential ...

A new conceptual framework recently emerged to explain zoonoses transmitted from animal hosts to humans that integrates pathogen type, life cycle, transmission direction, and ecosystem processes. We applied this framework ...

Understanding why some individuals within populations are more prone to harbor parasites (and diseases) than others is an important biological question. Repeated measures on marked individuals over time are required to ...

Natural selection is expected to favor foraging behaviors that allow animals to maximize energy gain in novel situations. Whereas many species are known to regularly hunt prey and eat meat, squirrels are largely considered ...

Biologists have long recognized the importance of two native rodent species – California ground squirrels and voles – as important ecosystem engineers and prey for a suite of predators in California ecosystems. However, ...

Dietary flexibility allows animals to respond adaptively to food pulses in the environment. Here we document the novel emergence of widespread hunting of California voles and carnivorous feeding behavior by California ...