Media boost small mammal pilfering study from UMaine researchers
A study on the behavior of small mammals in the wild from a team of researchers at the University of Maine was the topic of recent articles from IFLScience and Trim Feed. UMaine graduate student Brigit Humphreys, lead author who worked to collect data in a forest for two years, said the aim of her research was to determine how the personalities of small mammals and animals influence their pilfering, and in turn ecological processes. “We’re focused on small mammals because they’re a great study system,” she said. “They’re abundant, we get a really good sample size and we can actually conduct experiments on them in the forest.”