Research team in the laboratory of Professor Lucia Jacobs. "Fox squirrels show long-term investment savvy when hoarding nuts."

By Yasmin Anwar, Media Relations | October 3, 2012

BERKELEY —
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are gathering evidence this fall that the feisty fox squirrels scampering around campus are not just mindlessly foraging for food, but engaging in a long-term savings strategy. Humans could learn something about padding their nest eggs from squirrels’ diversification efforts.

UC Berkeley researchers are studying the hoarding behavior of fox squirrels. (Video courtesy of Mikel Delgado) Of course, with squirrels, it’s not about money, but about nuts.

“Think of them as little bankers depositing money and spreading it out in different funds, and doing some management of those funds,” said Mikel Delgado, a doctoral student in psychology who heads the squirrel research team in the laboratory of UC Berkeley psychologist Lucia Jacobs. [read more]

caching video