Smelly squirrels fool hungry snakes

12:30 19 August 2006
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Squirrels are the unlikely inventors of a cloaking device that lets them thwart rattlesnakes by using the snakes' own scent against them.

Female California ground squirrels (Spermophilus beecheyi) chew on skins shed by Pacific rattlesnakes (Crotalus oreganus) then lick themselves and their pups, apparently to anoint them with the odour of the enemy. But does this olfactory disguise fool the snakes?