Squirrels are left or right-handed just like humans, scientists discover

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SQUIRRELS follow humans in being left and right-handed, scientists have discovered. But although some favour one side of the body over the other, it is not to make their brains more efficient — as …

But although some favour one side of the body over the other, it is not to make their brains more efficient — as is believed to be the case in people.Instead, squirrels who showed a paw preference in experiments were not as good at learning fresh tasks as their ambidextrous counterparts.The critters had to learn to use a paw to reach nuts inside a perspex tube.

Study author Dr Lisa Leaver said: “We found that the squirrels who had stronger tendencies to use either their left or their right paws rather than being ambidextrous were the ones who didn’t perform as well on the tasks. So they didn’t learn as quickly.” She said the findings are in line with previous mammal studies that suggest strongly favouring one side is “linked to poor cognitive performance” — but more research is needed.a story? Ring The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or

 

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