How Arctic ground squirrels use steroids to bulk up for winter

What is it about?

Rodents pumped up on steroids run wild across the Canadian tundra each summer. Now, new research has uncovered how they do it without succumbing to nasty side effects like "roid rage." In the summer, Arctic ground squirrels of both sexes have levels of testosterone and other "male" steroid hormones or androgens in their blood that are 10 to 200 times that of other ground squirrels. that's because the groundhog-like rodents need to bulk up bulk up with muscle to survive winter.

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