The California ground squirrel appears to be innocent. A well-known sight for hikers: the stocky rodent can often be seen happily chewing grass, seeds and berries.

But in keeping with a brand new study published Wednesday within the Journal of EthologyWildlife biologists have documented one ferocious trait of the creature: It is a dedicated carnivore, hunting and feeding on unlucky little voles.

Like a rodent version of the notoriously violent 1969 film “The Wild Bunch,” extensive video footage shot near Contra Costa County Briones Regional Park provides repeated evidence of the ferocity of squirrels.

Squirrels chase the voles, then catch them and beat them until they grow to be a bloody pulp. Like cats, the squirrels sometimes allow the mortally wounded animal to limp away. Then they pounce again. As the vole writhes and clings to life, it bites.

Ground squirrels are known to exist in California is not going to hand over an easy meat meal. Previous investigations found evidence of eaten voles in addition to quail eggs, insects and shellfish.

But the brand new study, conducted by scientists on the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and UC Davis, is the primary to record widespread predatory behavior.

“That was shocking,” said the lead writer Jennifer E Smithan associate professor of biology at UW-Eau Claire who co Sonja Wild from UC Davis leads the Long-term project on the behavioral ecology of the California ground squirrel.

“Here is this behavior unprecedented in science that sheds light on the fact that there is so much more to learn about the natural history of the world around us,” she said.

With its rolling, grassy hills and secluded, shady ravines, Briones is a paradise for ground squirrels.

According to Smith, squirrels are quite a few and diverse, and are fascinating because they’ve a bigger and way more complex social structure than other squirrel species.

The behavior of two distinct gopher populations is the main target of research by faculty and students at UC Davis, Wisconsin and other institutions.

Under the name “Team Squirrel,” the researchers track specific animals 12 months after 12 months and collect extensive data concerning the social and biological history of many individual creatures over the course of their lives.

They analyze recordings of alarm calls. They study squirrel feces to learn more about gut health. You will witness exciting clashes between rattlesnakes and squirrels.

In 2024 something unusual happened. There has been an unusual explosion in vole abundance in parts of California.

Voles are defenseless bundles of fur, small and chubby, with short round ears, a round head, and restless energy. They are engineers and dig burrows that transform soil and transport seeds. They are lively day and night and are driven by an infinite appetite and a continuing must feed their offspring. Voles can produce as much as six or seven broods per 12 months.

The researchers learned that scurrying across a meadow in broad daylight was dangerous for voles.

Through videos, photos and direct observations within the regional park, they documented ground squirrels hunting, eating and competing for vole prey between June 10 and July 30. Squirrels' carnivorous summer behavior peaked in the primary two weeks of July, coinciding with an explosion in vole numbers within the park reported by citizen scientists on iNaturalist, a free app that users have used to record hundreds of thousands of observations of untamed animals and plants.

The squirrels seemed bored with hunting other small mammals.

When I watched the video, “I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Wild said. “From then on we saw this behavior almost every day. Once we started looking, we saw it everywhere.”

The study changes our understanding of ground squirrels – suggesting that what was considered a grain-eating species is definitely an opportunistic omnivore, researchers say.

Many other species, including raccoons, coyotes and humans, are known to be flexible of their weight loss plan and behavior.

The recent study shows that the California ground squirrel can even reply to a rise in prey availability, in keeping with the study.

“The fact that California ground squirrels are behaviorally flexible and can respond to changes in food availability could help them survive in environments that are rapidly changing due to the presence of humans,” Wild said.

Other questions remain unanswered. For example, it just isn’t known whether hunting behavior is widespread, whether it’s passed from parent to pup, and the way it affects the general ecology of the natural landscape.

Researchers plan to return to Briones next summer to see what impact, if any, this 12 months's vole weight loss plan had on squirrel numbers.

By then, nonetheless, the squirrels could have grow to be another person's dinner. Hungry snakes, weasels, hawks and eagles rely on them for food.

Ground squirrels are predators. But like voles, also they are prey animals.

Brittany Mahomes has apparently finally woken as much as the fact that Donald Trump is a polarizing figure who likes to make use of harsh, hateful rhetoric against people she desires to demonize for political reasons or for her personal gain.

A report from the Daily Mail said the wife of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is rethinking her reported support of the Republican presidential candidate following his scathing public attack on her friend Taylor Swift.

Trump attacked the pop star on Sunday morning after she endorsed his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris immediately following his poor performance within the presidential debate on September 10. Trump wrote on his Truth Social Platform: “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT.”

“She is questioning her support for Donald Trump after he attacked Taylor and said he hated her,” a source told the Daily Mail. “This has deeply upset Brittany because Taylor is like a sister to her and she has done absolutely nothing wrong.”

However, the source cautioned that the mother of two's change of heart toward Trump didn’t mean she was “suddenly voting for Kamala. It just made her more conscious of supporting him so publicly.”

Mahomes was embroiled in controversy late last month when fans noticed she allegedly liked one in every of Trump's Instagram posts outlining the GOP platform. Since then, she has been embraced by Trump supporters on their social media accounts, while the previous president personally thanked her for defending him and his MAGA agenda.

But Mahomes' apparent support for Trump is seen as a strain on her friendship with Swift, whom she met since the pop star is dating Travis Kelce, a great friend of her husband and teammate on the Chiefs.

Then got here Swift's endorsement of Harris. On Instagram, Swift wrote: “I'm voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes that I believe need a champion to represent them.” Swift's statement of support was accompanied by a photograph of her holding one in every of her cats. She signed her endorsement “Childless Cat Lady,” a pointy reference to the demeaning statements made by Trump's running mate JD Vance about women, cat owners, and other people without children.

Trump seems to enjoy risking the 2 women's friendship to tear them apart over their perceived political differences. A day after Swift announced her endorsement, he sang Mahomes' praises on Fox News, saying, “If you want to know the truth, I actually like Ms. Mahomes a lot better.” He also warned that the “liberal” Swift would “pay a price for that in the marketplace.”

But irrespective of how hard Trump could have tried, he has didn’t drive a wedge between the 2 women. Swift and Kelce were seen in a box with Brittany and Patrick Mahomes at the boys's final of the U.S. Open on Sept. 8. Swift was also one in every of the guests on the twenty ninth party Mahomes threw for her husband on Sunday night after the Chiefs' victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. Us Weekly reported this.

Swift's support for Harris also expressed her concern over Trump's use of AI photos of her on Truth Social. Back in August, the previous reality TV star shared fake photos of Swift and her fans, in addition to messages that falsely portrayed her as a Trump supporter.

Trump's post “really revived my fears around AI and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” Swift wrote. “It made me realize that as a voter, I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election. The easiest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”

To that end, Swift said she would support Harris within the 2024 presidential election.

Swift's support didn't come as an excessive amount of of a surprise. She “proudly” endorsed Joe Biden and Harris in 2020, saying the 2 within the White House would help heal the country after Trump stoked “the fires of white supremacy and racism” during his “entire” presidency from 2017 to 2021. She said she would love to assist vote him out “in November.”

Originally published: September 17, 2024 at 10:34 am

The assassination attempt on Donald Trump on July 13, 2024, has added further fuel to an already heated election season. In this case, political violence was perpetrated against the party that it’s mostly representedThe incident shows how uncontrollable political violence may be – and the way dangerous the present times are for America.

Part of the complication, after all, is the contentious and confrontational nature of American politics. But Technology makes it harder for Americans to grasp sudden news developments.

Gone are the times when only a handful of media outlets informed broad sections of society in regards to the news after a radical fact-checking by skilled journalists.

In contrast, today anyone can “report” news online, provide supposed “analysis” of events, and mix facts, fiction, speculation, and opinions to suit a desired narrative or political perspective.

Then that perspective could also be presented as legitimate due to the creator's official position, wealth, variety of social media followers, or the eye of mainstream news organizations in search of to fill their news cycles.

And that's without even mentioning the convincing deepfake audio and video clips, whose lies and misrepresentations can sow much more confusion and distrust online and in society.

Today’s internet-based narratives also often include personal attacks, either directly or through inferences and suggestions – what experts call “stochastic terrorism” that may motivate people to violence. Political violence is the inevitable result – and has been for years, including attacks on US Representative Gabby Giffords, the husband of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, PaulThe Shooting practice for the 2017 Congressional Baseball Teamthe rebel of January 6, 2021, and now the attempted assassination of a former president who’s running for the White House again.

When bullets and conspiracies fly

As a Security and Internet researchers It was completely predictable for me that inside just a few minutes after the attack right-wing social media exploded with spontaneous response stories that blamed political rivals or the media, or suggested that the incident was the results of a sinister “inside job” by the federal government.

But it was not only extraordinary Internet users or distinguished Business magnates stokes these flames. Several Republicans made such statements from their official social media accounts. For example, lower than an hour after the attack, Congressman Mike Collins of Georgia accuses President Joe Biden of “incitement to assassinate” and told Biden “the orders sent.“ Ohio Senator JD Vance, now Trump's candidate for vpalso implied that Biden was responsible for the attack.

The bloodied former president stood up and delayed his evacuation by the key service for a photograph along with his fist raised before leaving the rally, and his campaign team released a Defiant donation email later that evening. This led to some Trump Critics suggest the incident was a “false flag” attack staged to realize a sympathetic national highlight. Others claimed the incident fit Trump’s continuous messaging to his supporters that he was a victim of persecution.

From a historical perspective, the previous right-wing president of Brazil is value mentioning. Jair Bolsonaro survived an assassination attempt in 2018 to turn out to be the country's next president in 2019.

It has long been known that Internet narratives, memes and content spread everywhere in the world like wildfire, long before the actual truth involves light. Unfortunately, these narratives, whether factual or fictional, may be picked up by traditional news organizations – and thus given a certain degree of legitimacy and spread further.

Many who see such messages, amplified by each social media and traditional news services, often imagine them – and a few may react with political violence or terrorism.

Can anything help?

Several strands of research show that there are methods by which extraordinary people will help break this dangerous cycle.

Immediately after the breaking news, it is crucial to do not forget that initial reports are sometimes incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate. Rather than being quick to repost things during rapidly developing news events, it's best to instantly avoid retweeting, reposting, or otherwise sharing online content. If information has been confirmed by multiple credible sources, ideally from across the political spectrum, then it's probably protected enough to imagine and share.

In the long term, it can profit us as a nation and a society to raised understand how technology and human inclinations interact. By teaching schoolchildren more media literacy and important considering skills, we are able to higher prepare future residents to tell apart fact from fiction in a posh world filled with conflicting information.

Another possible approach is to expand the teaching of civics and history in schools to present students the chance to learn from the past and, all of us hope, not repeat its mistakes.

Social media firms are also a part of the possible solution. In recent years, they’ve disbanded teams should monitor content and increase user trust in the data available on their platforms. Supreme Court rulings make it clear that these firms are free to actively monitor their platforms for disinformation, misinformation and conspiracy theories in the event that they so wish. But firms and alleged “Advocates of absolute freedom of expression“, including X owner Elon Musk, who refuse to remove controversial, although technically legal, web content from their platforms, potentially endangering public safety.

Traditional media outlets have a responsibility to tell the general public objectively, without giving voice to unverified conspiracy theories or misinformation. Ideally, qualified guests are invited on news programs who add useful facts and informed opinions to the general public discourse, somewhat than allowing speculation. And serious news anchors avoid the rhetorical strategy of “just ask questions“ or participation in “Ambidexterity“ as a method of bringing fringe theories – often from the Internet – into the news cycle, where they gain traction and circulation.

The public also plays a job.

Responsible residents could deal with electing officials and supporting parties that don’t accept conspiracy theories and private attacks as normal strategies. Voters could make it clear that they reward politicians who deal with policy achievements somewhat than on their media image and social media following.

This could, over time, send a message that the spectacle of contemporary political narratives on the Internet generally serves no useful purpose apart from to sow social discord and undermine the power of presidency agencies to act – and potentially result in political violence and terrorism.

Of course, these should not fast solutions. Many of those efforts would require time – maybe even years – money and courage.

Until then, perhaps Americans should once more remember the golden rule: Treat others as you desire to to be treated. Emphasizing facts within the news, integrity in public spaces, and media literacy in our schools also seem to be good approaches.