Grey squirrels are fast learners when it comes to finding nuts

If you have ever hung a bird feeder in your garden only to find it emptied by a squirrel minutes later, you’ll already believe the pesky rodents are smart. Using an intelligence test scientists have shown grey squirrels really are fast learners, capable of adapting tactics to improve efficiency and reap the best rewards The intelligence test, devised by researchers at the University of Exeter, test took form of a box with 12 sunken wells, four of which were hollow. Nuts were placed in the four hollow wells diagonally across from each other, so that the least efficient way to look for them was by going from well to well in a clockwise or anti-clockwise sequence THE SMARTNESS OF SQUIRRELS Animal intelligence is generally judged by how well a creature can adapt to its environment and make use of resources around them. ‘They made a decreased number of errors as they learned and progressively changed their tactic to increase efficiency and obtain the hidden rewards.’ Co-author Dr Lisa Leaver, said: ‘We predicted that squirrels would be quick to learn this task because learning spatial arrays is crucial for them in order to recover their food caches in the winter months. ‘Whilst it would be fascinating to compare them with, say, crows or even primates, it would be difficult to carry out that kind of comparative study given that squirrels and crows see and manipulate things differently, and therefore it takes time to develop a task that is effective to test both species.’ Over a number of successive attempts, the squirrels - named Simon, Arnold, Sarah, Leonard and Suzy - worked out that if one well contained a reward, another nut would be located in the well diagonally opposite it.