petermarcus: (Default)
petermarcus ([personal profile] petermarcus) wrote2003-01-15 09:01 pm

(no subject)

Squirrel Fishing
(Rodent Performance Evaluation at Hah-vahd University)


When I was 5 years old, my grandfather had tamed the squirrels in his yard so much, they would take food from his hand. They'd climb the screen on the front door and look in, waiting for him. Once, climbing the screen, they accidentally rang the doorbell. My grandparents thought this was cute and reinforced the behavior by feeding them walnuts. 30 years later, I'm still trying to figure out if they trained the squirrels, or the squirrels trained them.

[identity profile] macaholic.livejournal.com 2003-01-15 07:41 pm (UTC)(link)
maybe a little of both. I find that humans train fairly easily. Pavlov for instance learned to ring a bell every time a dog salivated.

[identity profile] mymetamorphose.livejournal.com 2003-01-15 07:53 pm (UTC)(link)
That was definitely a great memory!

[identity profile] kimosabi46.livejournal.com 2003-01-15 10:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Found your journal while wandering around....hope you don't mind my prying, but that is a cute story :)