FOOD PREFERENCE BEHAVIOR OF THE 5-STRIPED SQUIRREL, FUNAMBULUS-PENNANTI WROUGHTON

Food preference behaviour of Funambulus pennanti Wroughton was studied offering four different types of cereals, viz. wheat, millet, maize a nd rice in three textural forms, viz, whole dry, cracked and whole moi st in no-choice, bi-choice and multiple-choice to the experimental squ irrels. The mean daily intake of F. pennanti in no-choice has been rec orded to be 3.53 to 11.70 g, which, however, increased to 6.31 to 14.1 9 g and 20.12 to 33.98 g in bi-choice and multiple-choice experiments, respectively. The preference of squirrels in the no-choice feeding ex periment was for cracked millet, whole moist wheat and whole dry wheat . In bi-choice feeding experiments, squirrels preferred cracked millet , whole moist millet and whole dry rice. In multiple-choice experiment s, the squirrels showed a preference for cracked millet, whole moist a nd dry wheat and rice. On overall basis, cracked millet was highly pre ferred by the squirrels. In pen-feeding experiments where the squirrel s were offered 12 different foods along with the different plant mater ial including weeds, grasses, twigs of fruit trees, revealed the suste nance in preference of squirrels for cracked millet, whole moist mille t, whole moist and dry wheat and whole dry rice in descending order. S quirrels neither formed any nest nor hoarded any food in the experimen tal pen. Squirrels did not reject any food during choice preference ex periments and demonstrated optimal behaviour. Overall, squirrels exhib ited a 'Generalist' feeding pattern. The present findings indicate tha t cracked millet should be used as a poison carrier for control of squ irrels while other preferred cereals can also be used as a bait for mi xing poison in the subsequent control operations.