So how did the researchers discover that the squirrels heat their tails?
Confronted by gopher snakes, which can’t sense heat, the squirrels wave their tails vigorously, but don’t bother to heat them up.
So how did the researchers discover that the squirrels heat their tails?
The researchers were studying how squirrels reacted to various predators and noticed that with rattlesnakes they waved their tails even more in dark conditions than in the light. That prompted the researchers to view the encounters using an infrared camera, and they discovered the squirrels’ tails were much warmer than normal when dealing with rattlesnakes.