RESPONSES OF FUNAMBULUS-PENNANTI WROUGHTON (RODENTIA, SCIURIDAE) TOWARDS DIFFERENT FOOD-ADDITIVES

Studies of responses of Funambulus pennanti towards different food add itives revealed their equivocal preference for cracked millet, the bas e food, mixed with 5% groundnut oil and 5% groundnut oil along with 5% sugar respectively: they consumed them significantly more than their corresponding plain base food in bi-choice experiments: The addition o f flavours in the base food was poorly accepted by squirrels, and, ove rall, retarded their daily bait intake. However, their zest for flavou rs was exhibited in multi-choice pen experiments in which they showed preference for cracked millet, whole moist millet and also the flavour ed foods. Squirrels neither hoarded any food nor formed any nest insid e the pen. No food was ever rejected by squirrels in any experiment wh ich demonstrates their sampling behaviour. It is recommended that crac ked millet with 5% groundnut oil can be used as poison carrier for con trol of squirrels while cracked millet, moist whole millet and cracked millet with 5% groundnut oil and 5% sugar can also be used as a bait for mixing poison in the subsequent control operations. However, deter mination of the potential of flavoured foods as a poison carrier in pa rticular situations in natural environment of squirrels needs further investigations.