Megan Gannon,
News Editor
Date: 19 April
2013 Time: 06:16 PM ET
Red squirrel
moms know how to give their offspring an early edge in a crowded forest.
New research
shows the animals can speed up the growth rate of their pups to help ensure
they'll be able to compete for turf when populations are dense. Surprisingly,
stress, not more food, is the key to the mother's gift, scientists say.
Bigger
squirrels have a better chance of staking out an exclusive territory, where
they can freely feast
on the seeds hidden in spruce-tree cones. Juveniles that don't manage to
acquire a territory before their first winter often do not survive.
"When
population density is high, only the fastest-growing offspring survive,"
said study researcher Andrew McAdam, of Guelph
University in Canada .
McAdam and colleagues
studied North American red squirrels living in the Yukon . In field experiments, they played
recordings of territorial squirrel vocalizations (known as "rattles")
to trick the moms into thinking that the forests were more densely populated.
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