Sylvia Halkin and Students Research Deceptive Behavior of Squirrels


Above, from left to right, Animal Planet’s Most Extreme series cameraman
Alan McArthur and sound engineer Adrian Kubala film CCSU undergraduates
Stephanie Collin, Tom McKenna, and Allison Gaudet, as well as Dr. Sylvia Halkin,
professor of biology, as they prepare to demonstrate their experiments on
squirrels’ deceptive caching behavior.
Photo credit: Don Angels

Sylvia Halkin, CCSU professor of biology, teaches animal behavior every other fall. As part of the course, she asks that students write a proposal to study some aspect of animal behavior they have observed during the semester. More than a decade ago, Suzanne Tinti, a student observing squirrels for Halkin’s class, noticed that in the course of burying acorns, squirrels sometimes also covered up other places where nothing had been buried. She thought that this “deceptive caching” behavior might function to misdirect watching acorn thieves to dig in the wrong place (other squirrels, crows, and blue jays may all rob squirrel caches), and she wrote a proposal for an observational study of this behavior. Taking an interest in her student’s observation, and with her permission, the next year Halkin and former CCSU students Katerina Mitsopoulos and Jennifer Herron began the first squirrel behavior study at the University. 

Several years after the initial study, CCSU student Tom McKenna thought of a way to enhance the study—an experiment to rob squirrels of their cached nuts. The tests were to compare the nut-burying behavior of the squirrels before and after they had experienced the “theft” of their buried nuts. During the spring semesters of 2004 and 2005, the experiment was performed by CCSU students Tom McKenna, Amy Jennings, Irene Koulouris, Stephanie Collin, Melanie Bellware, Allison Gaudet, Shana Murphy, Michelle Reed, Jennifer Richello, Jennifer Vizcaino, and Lynn Weaver.

As a result of the study, Halkin and her students found the squirrels took more measures to protect their food once nuts they had buried had been stolen. “They were more likely to perform deceptive caching, or to eat rather than to bury nuts, or to store nuts in places where humans could not easily reach them, such as in trees, under bushes, or in mud,” says Halkin. “It is fascinating the diversity of things they can do to help to protect their food from being stolen.” 

According to Halkin, deceptive behavior of animals is an area where there is not a lot of data. She adds that “Deceptive behavior also provides some insight into how other animals are thinking. The squirrels’ responses to our experiments indicate that they are aware of the presence and behavior of potential cache robbers and that they have the ability to respond in a number of different adaptive ways when their food is stolen.” 

Halkin has also collaborated with Dr. Michael Steele of Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and Dr. Peter Smallwood of the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia, who had independently discovered and studied deceptive caching, which is Steele’s name for the behavior. Their research captured the attention of Animal Planet, which sent a crew to film Halkin and Steele and their students reenacting their experiments on deceptive squirrel behavior. According to Halkin, the filming will be aired on the Animal Planet’s Most Extreme series, in a show called “The Most Extreme Pirates” in August or September. 

Halkin hopes to continue to collaborate with Steele and Smallwood, conducting some of the same experiments in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Virginia to see if there are regional differences in behavior. “Seven CCSU students have already signed up to work on this project next fall and are looking forward to what they will learn from the next phase of their study,” adds Halkin. 

 —    Sheila Guillaume

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