Territorial red squirrels live longer when they're friendly with their neighbors
Credit: Erin Siracusa Though red squirrels are a solitary and territorial species, a 22-year study of these squirrels in the Yukon suggests that they have a higher chance of survival and a greater number of offspring when living near the same neighbors year after year. Surprisingly, the findings--appearing December 17 in the journal Current Biology--show that it didn't matter whether the squirrels' neighbors were related to them; these fitness benefits instead depended on familiarity, or the length of time the same squirrels lived next to each other. These benefits were even more pronounced ...
Source: eurekalert.org