The boy who cries wolf isn’t the only one who loses credibility. Burrowing squirrels known as Richardson’s ground squirrels pay less attention to alarms from a neighbor associated with false signals than to calls from a source with a better record, says James F. Hare of University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.
A Richardson’s ground squirrel in a moderately vigilant pose.
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.