Washington (AFP)

The acrobatic leaps of squirrels depend on complex calculations made in a fraction of a second and these rodents develop surprising strategies, sometimes resembling those used in the urban discipline of parkour, according to a new study published Thursday in the prestigious journal Science.

Scientists at UC Berkeley have built bespoke obstacle courses to better understand how squirrels adjust their movements in flight to avoid fatal falls.

They hope that this research can one day help develop more agile robots.

"Squirrels have a combination of characteristics that make them very interesting: on the one hand, their acrobatic nature, their biological mechanics and their powerful muscles, which they can use for leaps that are several times the size of their body," said Nathan Hunt, lead author of the study, explained to AFP.

"On the other hand, their cognitive abilities. They have a very good memory, are very creative and very good at finding solutions to problems," he added.

The research team used peanuts to attract them.

Perches were set up to simulate tree branches, forcing the animals to jump varying distances to receive their reward.

The scientists wanted to observe how squirrels make their decisions when faced with a difficult trade-off: approaching the edge of the perches reduced the distance to jump but compromised their stability, while reducing the propulsive force that could be used, since the platform became then unstable.

As a result, squirrels preferred to soar from the base of the perch, especially when the "branches" were the least rigid.

The flexibility of the perches turned out to be six times more important in their decision-making than the distance to be covered.

No squirrels fell during the experiment, thanks to different strategies - and their sharp claws.

The most surprising innovation: for the most difficult jumps, instead of aiming directly at the target, the squirrels used the side wall as a step to "bounce", thus seeming to use a technique of parkour, this discipline popularized by the Yamakasi in France in the 1990s.

When squirrels are chased by raptors, their flight can be played from a few inches away, which is probably the reason for their great agility, according to Nathan Hunt.

“It's funny to publish this study, because people very often watch squirrels in their gardens,” he says.

And he himself cannot help but have other ideas of experiences by observing them, he confides.

© 2021 AFP