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Behold the tufted ground squirrel, one of the strangest tree-dwelling rodents found on Earth. Native to Borneo, it is rarely seen &mdash one camera trap study in a park on the island turned up only one of these squirrels, known scientifically as Rheithrosciurus macrotis. When they have been spotted, their large tail has stuck out.
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More of the furry critters were photographed in a more recent study, published in Taprobanica. And the researchers made quite a discovery: The squirrel's tail is 130 percent the mass of the rest of its body, giving this species the largest tail-to-body ratio of any known mammal. Its closest competitors in the "bushiest tail" category are ring-tailed cats, striped possums and squirrel gliders, though in each case these animals' fluffy appendages are (merely) the same mass as their non-tail body.
But why would it be advantageous to have such a large tail? The researchers suspected it could be used to deter predators such as Sunda clouded leopards, by making the squi
rrels appear bigger, or making it harder for the big cats to get a good hold on the rodents.
The squirrels are known to eat the seeds of Malva parviflora, also known as cheeseweed. This weedy plant, found in Africa and Asia and elsewhere, has anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties. Perhaps that helps them grow such a bushy tail. (Pure speculation, of course.) More bizarrely, the squirrels are said to stalk deer and other larger animals. As local hunters told the researchers:
...the squirrel waits on a low branch for a deer to pass below, jumps on its back and bites the jugular vein, whereon the deer bleeds to death. Once dead the squirrel proceeds to disembowel the deer and eat the stomach contents, heart and liver. Dayak (Bornean) hunters sometimes find these disemboweled deer in the forest, none of the flesh eaten, which to them is a clear sign of a squirrel kill. In villages close to the forest edge there were also accounts of the squirrel killing domestic chickens and eating the heart and liver only. Although the existence of carnivorous squirrels might be a bit hard to believe, the above might fit the description [from a 1949 study which noted that] Rheithrosciurus is known as being "wary, difficult to observe and biting fiercely." Also, other squirrels, such as the Giant Squirrel Ratufa affinis are known to actively hunt birds and other vertebrates
The researchers wrote that they would keep an open mind about these stories. After all, they added, "another seemingly unlikely hunter story from Borneo of deer of the genus Tragulus hiding underwater for long periods of time also turned out to be true."
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[h/t Science magazine]
SEE ALSO: Republicans Actually Created A Movie For Their Hillary-Stalking Squirrel