Researchers have found that red squirrels, an asocial species, will adopt their orphaned relatives. After almost 20 years of study, five cases of adoption in red squirrels are documented in a research paper published in Nature Communications this month.

Social animals, including lions and chimpanzees, are often surrounded by relatives, so it’s not surprising that a female would adopt an orphaned family member because they have already spent a lot of time together,” said Dr. Andrew McAdam of the University of Guelph in a press release.

Squirrels can identify their relatives by listening to their calls, according to McAdam. They may investigate if they don’t hear a nearby relative’s calls for a few days.

“We suspect that, if they find pups on the territory, they remember that their neighbor was a relative and carry the pups back to their nest. This would be quite intelligent behavior for a squirrel,” said McAdam.

Videos courtesy of the Kluane red squirrel project.

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