SHT - Dyed squirrels, stuffed bobcats, and parasites

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http://www.boston.com/dailynews/188/nation/Gonzaga_students_studying_effe:.shtml

Gonzaga students studying effects of parasites on animals by chasing dyed squirrels on campus

By Chad Dundas, Associated Press, 7/7/2001 06:55

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) Squirrels that scamper across the Gonzaga University campus have an even wilder look about them these days.

With their fur dyed black, red and green and their sometimes reckless behavior, the arboreal rodents could be compared to some freshmen who live in the residence halls.

But the squirrels' punk hairdos, and a stuffed bobcat that roams the campus on a motorized cart, are all in the name of science.

Hugh Lefcort's summer biology project is the reason for the squirrels' unusual colors, and their behavior is at the heart of his investigation. The associate professor in biology is studying whether squirrels that have parasites are less cautious than their healthy counterparts.

Like many universities in the Northwest, Gonzaga's vibrant 110-acre campus is overrun with squirrels in the summer months. Because most of the squirrels already carry parasites, such as tapeworms and fleas, Lefcort traps them and injects them with anti-parasite drugs.

Golf ball-sized lumps of peanut butter, molasses and oats are used to lure the squirrels into traps.

Then, Lefcort color codes the squirrels with dye streaks of black and red or dots of green that make it easy to tell the squirrels apart at a distance and releases them. The 40-minute process doesn't seem to bother the squirrels, Lefcort said.

''They keep coming back, so it must be worth it,'' he said. ''They know (we) just let them go.''

Lefcort and his students then watch to see if the treated squirrels are more alert than untreated squirrels to the threat of predators.

The stuffed bobcat mounted on a remote-control car is used to simulate danger. Lefcort measures how quickly the squirrels bolt from the stalking bobcat. The squirrels see the bobcat as an enemy because house cats prowl Gonzaga's urban campus at night, Lefcort said.

''The squirrels take it pretty seriously,'' he said. ''They're not scared of humans but they are scared of cats.''

Results from the squirrel study are still being analyzed, but Lefcort plans to submit his findings to national science journals. The study and another on the effects of heavy metals on snails are paid for through a $29,600 grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust.

On the Net:

http://www.gonzaga.edu/index1.cfm

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2001

Answers

"The associate professor in biology is studying whether squirrels that have parasites are less cautious than their healthy counterparts."

I wonder why it's important to know?

Is there a connection to the fact that this is where Decker got his college education during (or was it after?) his Navy enlistment?

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2001


Apparently Murdock thought it was important enough.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2001

Maybe that explains why the squirrels in my yard love to torment the cats. They have parasites so they are less cautious??? Actually I think our squirrels are just ornery. They seem to know which cats have claws and can climb trees (our house cats are missing their front claws and the barn cats aren't). If it is one of the house cats, they will come down the tree just far enough that the house cat can't get to it and chatter at it and tease it.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2001

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