News Animals

Hand-feeding squirrels accidentally changed their skulls

Red squirrels fed peanuts showed signs of weaker bite force versus those getting their own nuts

A bushy red squirrel nibbles on a peanut.

Squirrels love peanuts of course, but peanuts may not love them back. Populations of red squirrels fed a supplemental diet of peanuts developed weaker jaws than those living on a natural, harder nut diet.

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By Bethany Brookshire

Soft diet, weak jaws. If red squirrels eat too many peanuts, their jaws end up weaker than the jaws of squirrels eating natural diets, researchers report January 15 in Royal Society Open Science.