Do mother squirrels hide babies poop?

[Emssiee]

Hello everyone, I came across an article today and I never heard about squirrels hiding their babies poop before (in the wild, not enclosed).. so I was curious to see what others had to say about it. Here is a copy/paste of the paragraph where it's mentioned, followed by the link of the full article.

Squirrels are among species — deer are another — where the mother uses her mouth to carry her offspring’s poo and pee away from the nest. This is to protect her litter from predators.

“Evolutionarily, that’s a great strategy,” Don said. “The mother’s removing the only thing that can give [the baby] a scent: the pee and poo.” With no scent to follow, predators can’t find the defenseless baby.

The mother’s selfless act is so hard-wired in a squirrel’s very being that babies can urinate and defecate only after being stimulated by the mother licking around . . . down there.


Link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/answer-man-gives-the-scoop-on-squirrel-poop-other-readers-questions/2012/04/12/gIQAfOuPHT_story.html

[Emssiee]

Anyone?

[Mel1959]

I've never observed a momma squirrel with her babies in the wild to say one way or another. It does make sense and they do have to be stimulated to eliminate. Maybe someone with more knowledge than myself will have a better answer.

[Squeekhart]

There is a delightful person on youtube who has a hidden camera inside a nesting box, with hours and hours of black-and-white coverage of a mama squirrel and her three beebees over the weeks that they are nursing and incubating :). https://youtu.be/rB3Cc-M-VxE is one link. The username is MyBackyardBirding (for all I know, this person is one TSB).

The one consistent observation I have on squirrels is that they actually have a good reason for just about anything that they do. They are so practical and intelligent. It makes sense.

My mouse Pipsqueak used to designate one corner of her cage as the poop disposal center. I kept her cage clean, but no owner is going to maintain a poop-free mousecage 24/7. Pipsqueak would wait a few hours until the poop was dried, then delicatedly pick it up and deposit it into the designated corner. When it was time to change her fluffs, there would be the teeny heap of dried pooplettes, and the rest of the cage was nearly poop-free. I rather marvelled.

And we thought we have it rough when we have to change a diaper.

[DaSquirrelMom]

Mother deers move their tiny fawns on a daily basis. (If a fawn hasn't been moved in 24 hours, it is very likely having diarrhea and is sick or it's mother is injured/sick/dead). Mom deers lick their babies to stimulate them to urinate and defecate for several weeks. They consuming their babies' waste during these few weeks. They don't carry it away.

In a natural squirrel nest, feces falls to the ground through the openings in the twigs and branches.