Scientists call in the mechanical squirrels for research

AMHERST, Mass. -- One gray squirrel, its bushy tail twitching, barked a warning as another scrounged for food nearby.

It was an ordinary spring day at Hampshire College, except that the rodent issuing the warning was powered by amps, not acorns.

Dubbed "Rocky" after the cartoon character, the robo-squirrel is working its way into Hampshire's live-squirrel clique, controlled by researchers several yards away with a laptop computer and binoculars.

Sarah Partan, an assistant professor in animal behavior at Hampshire, hopes that by capturing a close-up view of squirrels in nature, Rocky will help her team decode squirrels' communication techniques, social cues and survival instincts.

Rocky is among many robotic critters worldwide helping researchers observe animals in their natural environments rather than in labs. The research could let scientists better understand how animals work in groups, court, intimidate rivals and warn allies of danger.

In Indiana, for instance, a fake lizard shows off its machismo as researchers assess which actions intimidate and which attract real lizards. Pheromone-soaked cockroach counterfeits in Brussels, meanwhile, exert peer pressure on real roaches to move out of protective darkness. In California, a tiny video camera inside a fake female sage grouse records close-up details as it's wooed — and more — by the breed's unusually promiscuous males.

The research may even help explain similar instinctive behaviors in humans, researchers say.

"Animals and humans are all affected by behaviors, body postures and signals from each other that we may not be aware of," Partan said.

The use of fake critters to infiltrate real groups of animals is so new that few companies build or sell such tools to researchers.

Many of the scientists using animal doppelgangers have modified toy animals or, like Partan and her students, cobbled together their own with fake fur, small motors, circuits and other material. Partan, who created Rocky a few years ago with students when she taught at the University of South Florida, is constantly refining its actions and updating its technology.