Squirrels: The Prophet

The nature is too fantastic to imagine. Among the miracles, "boom and bust" is one of the most fascinating, referring to the famous "lynx and hare" and powder beetle.

However, when we human beings are having a headache to predict future with great uncertainty, our little neighbors, the red squirrels, exhibit a wonderful foresight. Have they learned the Votka-Volterra equation?

If so, the teacher must be no one but the great Evolution. How did he get it?

Read the research story and amazing discovery in Science Magazine:

Anticipatory Reproduction and Population Growth in Seed Predators -- Boutin et al. 314 (5807): 1928 -- Science: " Mast seeding, the intermittent, synchronous production of large seed crops by a population of plants, is a well-known example of resource pulses that create lagged responses in successive trophic levels of ecological communities. These lags arise because seed predators are thought capable of increasing reproduction and population size only after the resource pulse is available for consumption. The resulting satiation of predators is a widely cited explanation for the evolution of masting. Our study shows that both American and Eurasian tree squirrels anticipate resource pulses and increase reproductive output before a masting event, thereby increasing population size in synchrony with the resource pulse and eliminating the population lag thought to be universal in resource pulse systems."