Are alien grey squirrels cleverer than native red squirrels in Britain?
A recent paper published in the scientific journal Animal Behaviour by Pizza Chow and colleagues has demonstrated that alien grey squirrels are slightly better than native red squirrels at solving certain problems involving the removal of hazelnuts from transparent plastic containers. The study has attracted a lot of attention in the media (International Business Times, UPI, Sky News, Channel 103, Mail Online, Metro), and there is the suggestion that the greater behavioural flexibility of grey squirrels may have contributed to their replacement of red squirrels throughout much of Britain. Whilst this is an intriguing thought, further comparative studies are needed of red and grey squirrels living in comparable habitats in Britain, and maybe also of grey squirrels from their native homeland in North America, to understand the relative problem-solving and competitive abilities of the two species.