Cyril the squirrel spotted the mouth-watering crackers at the bottom of a bird-feeder, he was consumed with a desire for a nibble.

The question was: How to get at them?

A Chihuahua pup named Zachary from Cundy's Harbor, Maine ,snuggles, with one of three orphaned squirrels that his mother is raising along with her own two puppies.

Dubbed "Rocky" after the cartoon character, the robo-squirrel is working its way into Hampshire's live-squirrel clique, controlled by researchers several yards away with a laptop computer and binoculars.

Sarah Partan, an assistant professor in animal behavior at Hampshire, hopes that by capturing a close-up view of squirrels in nature, Rocky will help her team decode squirrels' communication techniques, social cues and survival instincts.