Column Chronicles: Stress relief and confidence advice to humans from squirrels

Stress relief and confidence advice to humans from squirrels

Frank Cotolo
July 24, 2025

Who would think that human stress and confidence could be reduced by studying the rambunctious lives of squirrels? New studies reveal this is true.

The pinchy haired little rodents called squirrels are found everywhere on Earth. They spend a lot of their lives searching for food while remaining a choice meal for larger animals that spend most of their lives seaching for food - specifically squirrels.

Professor Ignore Averyting said the squirrels' struggle to survive begins at birth and includes difficult development experiences that affect it in later life. "Like Freud said about humans," the professor said. "Difficult types of early-life experiences, including food deprivation, parental abuse, learning to climb and accepting you are prey, breeds low self-esteem and that is a benefit to the predators."

This is one reason, said researchers analyzing the behavior of squirrels, that many squirrels die from severe stress - not from being killed for food. Experiments aimed at making squirrels more aware and confident are proving positive.

"We put a dozen squirrels into a room at a time," said Averyting, "and showed them Rocky The Flying Squirrel cartoons for hours. Then we monitored their behavior when we returned them to the wild. Their stress levels decreased and they became braver and climbed faster to escape peril. Some tried to fly."

This means greater chances will prevent squirrel extinction, according to researcher Ernie Wicklick. "The only negative about the cartoon experiment," he said, "is the squirrels were not afraid of moose, so the moose ate the fearless squirrel. That's due to the cartoon content where Bullwinkle never ate Rocky, though we always joke Bullwinkle ate Rocky's nuts."

Wicklick also said humans can learn from the experiments. "Viewing certain cartoons, especially retro-aged cartoons like Rocky, relieve stress," he said. "We found Bugs Bunny cartoons helped other species of rodents to be cunning and tricky enough to relax and better protect themselves from danger."

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.