A Gruesome Dietary Adaptation
December 22, 2024 1:44 PM Subscribe
Squirrels Are Displaying ‘Widespread Carnivorous Behavior’ for the First Time in a California Park. The familiar rodents, known for eating nuts and seeds, have been spotted hunting, killing and consuming voles. Scientists say it might signal resiliency in face of future environmental pressures
“This was shocking,” study lead author Jennifer E. Smith, a professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, says in a statement. “We had never seen this behavior before.”
“At first, we questioned what was going on,” Smith tells Suzie Dundas of SFGATE. “But seeing the videos was astounding and shifted my perspective on a species that I have spent the last 12 years of my life studying.”
“This was shocking,” study lead author Jennifer E. Smith, a professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, says in a statement. “We had never seen this behavior before.”
“At first, we questioned what was going on,” Smith tells Suzie Dundas of SFGATE. “But seeing the videos was astounding and shifted my perspective on a species that I have spent the last 12 years of my life studying.”
There are no squirrels in Iceland, and foreigners who’re aware of that fact can sometimes spot Icelanders abroad because they’re the only people who stare at squirrels in city parks.
And that’s not because we’re fascinated by these exotic creatures, but because when we look, we see that glint in their eyes, that hint of death, that killing glare. Yes, it’s voles now, but then it will be larger game, then domestic animals, and finally humans, and there will be no stopping them, because a city is the perfect environment for a carnivorous pack of squirrels.
Only Iceland will survive the coming squirrelgeddon.
posted by Kattullus at 1:59 PM on December 22, 2024 [53 favorites]
And that’s not because we’re fascinated by these exotic creatures, but because when we look, we see that glint in their eyes, that hint of death, that killing glare. Yes, it’s voles now, but then it will be larger game, then domestic animals, and finally humans, and there will be no stopping them, because a city is the perfect environment for a carnivorous pack of squirrels.
Only Iceland will survive the coming squirrelgeddon.
posted by Kattullus at 1:59 PM on December 22, 2024 [53 favorites]
At their core they are simply cute, fuzzy tailed, arboreal RATS...
posted by jim in austin at 2:26 PM on December 22, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by jim in austin at 2:26 PM on December 22, 2024 [2 favorites]
This would affect my dislike of squirrels; voles and mice cause lots of damage tomy house and car.
posted by theora55 at 2:27 PM on December 22, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by theora55 at 2:27 PM on December 22, 2024 [1 favorite]
There are no squirrels in Iceland, and foreigners who’re aware of that fact can sometimes spot Icelanders abroad because they’re the only people who stare at squirrels in city parks.
When I went to Stockholm for a month, the locals were similarly bemused by the amount of attention I paid to magpies.
Only Iceland will survive the coming squirrelgeddon.
Strong Stand Still, Stay Silent vibe there.
posted by notoriety public at 2:30 PM on December 22, 2024 [10 favorites]
When I went to Stockholm for a month, the locals were similarly bemused by the amount of attention I paid to magpies.
Only Iceland will survive the coming squirrelgeddon.
Strong Stand Still, Stay Silent vibe there.
posted by notoriety public at 2:30 PM on December 22, 2024 [10 favorites]
I had a yard infested with voles. You can’t plant anything. I literally almost bought a device that looks like a metal detector without the plate … you stick it in the burrows and release gas, then press a button to ignite like in Caddyshack. This is a real thing. I guess what I’m saying is viva la squirrel revolucion.
posted by caviar2d2 at 3:10 PM on December 22, 2024 [5 favorites]
posted by caviar2d2 at 3:10 PM on December 22, 2024 [5 favorites]
Lots of squirrels on my street. As I walk the dogs, I'll look up at them in the trees.
Sometimes one looks right back at me until I go away.
posted by Lemkin at 3:16 PM on December 22, 2024 [3 favorites]
Sometimes one looks right back at me until I go away.
posted by Lemkin at 3:16 PM on December 22, 2024 [3 favorites]
Native French speakers have considerable difficulty pronouncing the word "squirrel".
But I have considerable difficulty pronouncing the word "ecureuil", so it evens out.
posted by Lemkin at 3:19 PM on December 22, 2024 [8 favorites]
But I have considerable difficulty pronouncing the word "ecureuil", so it evens out.
posted by Lemkin at 3:19 PM on December 22, 2024 [8 favorites]
ALSO PLAGUE VECTOR. don't feed the sqwerls.
posted by supermedusa at 3:46 PM on December 22, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by supermedusa at 3:46 PM on December 22, 2024 [3 favorites]
Everything changes in a Fifth Season?
posted by janell at 3:53 PM on December 22, 2024 [17 favorites]
posted by janell at 3:53 PM on December 22, 2024 [17 favorites]
They are just so cute though...
If I could have a pack of squirrels as pets, that would be fun.
Not if they are going to go all carnivore though.
posted by Windopaene at 4:14 PM on December 22, 2024 [1 favorite]
If I could have a pack of squirrels as pets, that would be fun.
Not if they are going to go all carnivore though.
posted by Windopaene at 4:14 PM on December 22, 2024 [1 favorite]
I was visiting France this past summer. I saw no squirrels. I did see a lizard in Toulouse, though. It ran away when I tried to pet it. I've never seen a lizard outside of a zoo.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 4:30 PM on December 22, 2024
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 4:30 PM on December 22, 2024
Watch out for your nuts.
posted by biffa at 4:32 PM on December 22, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by biffa at 4:32 PM on December 22, 2024 [4 favorites]
Only Iceland will survive the coming squirrelgeddon.
Says you. Ratatoskr is chewing on your roots right now.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 5:21 PM on December 22, 2024 [10 favorites]
Says you. Ratatoskr is chewing on your roots right now.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 5:21 PM on December 22, 2024 [10 favorites]
So we had to put our 13 year old Boxer down on the literal first day of COVID lockdown in 2020 - even our own vet would not let us in the building insisting we'd need to drop our pup off at the door. That wasn't happening and we were blessed to find Angel Paws, the only provider who'd agree to come to our home (though at this point they wouldn't enter). Thankfully, that March day dawned at 50 degrees and it was almost 65 by the time they arrived at 2:00 pm, in full Hazmat suits no less but were kind as could be as we spent our final moments on our front porch, Tbone's favorite place, before saying goodbye.
Long story longer, it was only weeks later that one of our neighborhood squirrels - of which we have literally dozens in one 100+ year old Elm tree alone - took a walnut I threw its way and bounced up the porch steps for more. That single encounter quickly led to a three-year almost daily interaction with that single squirrel, who ultimately went to climbing onto our porch furniture to see us through the picture window and even standing up at our porch door to peer inside and beg for walnuts/interaction. We hand fed him until one day he just never returned, but it was a magical run after the loss of our dog.
At any rate, carnivorous squirrels were not on our end-of-year bingo card, but neither was the rest of the shitshow we're about to inhabit - so we'll see how much we can match their resiliency in face of future "environmental" pressures
posted by thecincinnatikid at 5:22 PM on December 22, 2024 [19 favorites]
Long story longer, it was only weeks later that one of our neighborhood squirrels - of which we have literally dozens in one 100+ year old Elm tree alone - took a walnut I threw its way and bounced up the porch steps for more. That single encounter quickly led to a three-year almost daily interaction with that single squirrel, who ultimately went to climbing onto our porch furniture to see us through the picture window and even standing up at our porch door to peer inside and beg for walnuts/interaction. We hand fed him until one day he just never returned, but it was a magical run after the loss of our dog.
At any rate, carnivorous squirrels were not on our end-of-year bingo card, but neither was the rest of the shitshow we're about to inhabit - so we'll see how much we can match their resiliency in face of future "environmental" pressures
posted by thecincinnatikid at 5:22 PM on December 22, 2024 [19 favorites]
Geese will be the next to turn and after that the jig is up for humanity.
posted by BCMagee at 5:24 PM on December 22, 2024 [7 favorites]
posted by BCMagee at 5:24 PM on December 22, 2024 [7 favorites]
I don't know if this is another average squirrel behavior but I've noticed the squirrels that live on the dirt road when I go to work, they will dart right in front of you and turn right back, or stay and jet just when you think you might hit them. it would be a great Road for student drivers to learn about small animal Road behavior. I think there's some secret signal between the clicks and tail wiggling:
"Honda, 13.2341 ft at 22.345 mph."
it's a sidebar but raccoons. had a raccoon that made its way on the second story mainly traversed my very large deck this summer, I had door open but the screen door closed, I went out to watch Saturn there it was, so I walk back in close, the door and she, assumption but could have sought safety of roof from a tree. so, attempt to open the door and shes like pulling back up on hind legs... "can't let me in....you can let me in...". I touch the door and she sways in her weight towards the door, this is a door entry tactic... like when the shoe salesman puts his shoe in the door when it's closed upon them. I'm sorry to say, I finally had to get a glass of water and throw it at the rear feet to get it going.
thing was, I empathized with it in real time like putting out the vibes, you're okay just move on and I'd let you in but you no, your raccoon, you going to smoke my stuff and drink all my wine and I seriously think that thing got it. stealthy little bandits, "I got just enough girth to look like a woodchuck or a wolverine or a pet named rocky."
you take the avian mindset, your average parrot, eventually it'll get on your shoulder, if it likes you maybe trim your ear hair. to most people that would seem quite unnerving and it is a test and it is this I think, a matter of trust. the question is would you trust a wolverine with Q-Tip or raccoon with your cigarettes.
posted by clavdivs at 5:31 PM on December 22, 2024 [7 favorites]
"Honda, 13.2341 ft at 22.345 mph."
it's a sidebar but raccoons. had a raccoon that made its way on the second story mainly traversed my very large deck this summer, I had door open but the screen door closed, I went out to watch Saturn there it was, so I walk back in close, the door and she, assumption but could have sought safety of roof from a tree. so, attempt to open the door and shes like pulling back up on hind legs... "can't let me in....you can let me in...". I touch the door and she sways in her weight towards the door, this is a door entry tactic... like when the shoe salesman puts his shoe in the door when it's closed upon them. I'm sorry to say, I finally had to get a glass of water and throw it at the rear feet to get it going.
thing was, I empathized with it in real time like putting out the vibes, you're okay just move on and I'd let you in but you no, your raccoon, you going to smoke my stuff and drink all my wine and I seriously think that thing got it. stealthy little bandits, "I got just enough girth to look like a woodchuck or a wolverine or a pet named rocky."
you take the avian mindset, your average parrot, eventually it'll get on your shoulder, if it likes you maybe trim your ear hair. to most people that would seem quite unnerving and it is a test and it is this I think, a matter of trust. the question is would you trust a wolverine with Q-Tip or raccoon with your cigarettes.
posted by clavdivs at 5:31 PM on December 22, 2024 [7 favorites]
I'm kind of annoyed at the way the story implies that hunting is a newly emerged behavior in these squirrels. The actual paper the story is based on (linked in the article) says, "Roughly 30 years ago, Callahan (1993) radically altered our perception of squirrels by characterizing as many as 30 species of the family Sciuridae as facultative predators of small vertebrates capable of killing and consuming adult fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals." It goes on to cite many previously known examples of squirrels eating meat (including ground squirrels killing and sometimes eating juveniles of their own species.)
So it's not like this is some new thing one group of squirrels has started doing. It's something that presumably has been happening forever when some easy prey becomes abundant. It's just that no one ever noticed it before, or at least no one who published a journal article about it. It's still a really interesting thing to have observed, though!
posted by Redstart at 5:55 PM on December 22, 2024 [15 favorites]
So it's not like this is some new thing one group of squirrels has started doing. It's something that presumably has been happening forever when some easy prey becomes abundant. It's just that no one ever noticed it before, or at least no one who published a journal article about it. It's still a really interesting thing to have observed, though!
posted by Redstart at 5:55 PM on December 22, 2024 [15 favorites]
fyi if you haven't read the article, these are not tree squirrels
posted by ryanrs at 6:14 PM on December 22, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by ryanrs at 6:14 PM on December 22, 2024 [3 favorites]
I work on a college campus with a large and comfortable squirrel population
They will absolutely steal your chicken nuggets if you aren't paying attention
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:26 PM on December 22, 2024 [7 favorites]
They will absolutely steal your chicken nuggets if you aren't paying attention
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:26 PM on December 22, 2024 [7 favorites]
I have a childhood memory of a squirrel in San Antonio just chowing down on katydids. Bugs really freaked me out when I was little - still do, but I’ve been working on it for decades - so I burst into tears and ran to tell my teacher about it. She resolutely did not believe me. She said that squirrels ate nuts, and I probably thought a nut was a bug. I took great offense to this. That squirrel was just grabbing them from the grass and chomping them in half like a drunk guy eating tacos.
Anyhoo. I think both squirrels and rats are cute, and brilliant survivors, and also they are both omnivores. Take that, stupid teacher lady.
posted by Mizu at 6:48 PM on December 22, 2024 [10 favorites]
Anyhoo. I think both squirrels and rats are cute, and brilliant survivors, and also they are both omnivores. Take that, stupid teacher lady.
posted by Mizu at 6:48 PM on December 22, 2024 [10 favorites]
A long time ago I was conveniently on a walk with a veterinarian's son who sometimes took care of wildlife on the side. Anyway we came across an injured young squirrel who didn't respond when we moved towards it after it had fallen out of a tree.
Wildlife guy picked up the small squirrel and out of the blue from a very far distance charged what I can only assume was momma squirrel. Charged at full speed towards us staring us down like we were nothing but dead.
I felt true fear in that moment. Wisely, the baby squirrel was carefully but hastily put on the ground and we backed away from the scene and avoided death.
Baby squirrel regained conciousness and bounced off, so all was well in the end.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:50 PM on December 22, 2024 [5 favorites]
Wildlife guy picked up the small squirrel and out of the blue from a very far distance charged what I can only assume was momma squirrel. Charged at full speed towards us staring us down like we were nothing but dead.
I felt true fear in that moment. Wisely, the baby squirrel was carefully but hastily put on the ground and we backed away from the scene and avoided death.
Baby squirrel regained conciousness and bounced off, so all was well in the end.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:50 PM on December 22, 2024 [5 favorites]
Squirrels raid bird nests. Not sure if this is widely adopted behaviour, but it's observed behaviour
Capacity to render damage: high. They chew their way into anything and they'll chew through interior electrical wires like nobody's business
I've fed a squirrel from my hand and felt its tail brush my stomach, they're enchantingly cute
I knew a guy whose campsite squirrel was getting overly bold, it was a matter of time till it would gain entry to his camper and wreak havoc. He live-trapped it, threw it in his truck, drove up the hill and out the gate of the campsite, and released the squirrel. In the time it took him to return to his campsite the squirrel was perched on his picnic table waiting for the daily seeds/nuts. Feed the squirrel at your peril
Learning from (above), when a squirrel started hanging about the entrance to my mom's house and raiding the feeders to an obnoxious level, I live-trapped it, drove it across the river and up to a park, before releasing it. The trip was nervewracking as the thought of that furious animal popping the trap to run free in the car was vivid and plausible at the time
posted by ginger.beef at 8:36 PM on December 22, 2024 [4 favorites]
Capacity to render damage: high. They chew their way into anything and they'll chew through interior electrical wires like nobody's business
I've fed a squirrel from my hand and felt its tail brush my stomach, they're enchantingly cute
I knew a guy whose campsite squirrel was getting overly bold, it was a matter of time till it would gain entry to his camper and wreak havoc. He live-trapped it, threw it in his truck, drove up the hill and out the gate of the campsite, and released the squirrel. In the time it took him to return to his campsite the squirrel was perched on his picnic table waiting for the daily seeds/nuts. Feed the squirrel at your peril
Learning from (above), when a squirrel started hanging about the entrance to my mom's house and raiding the feeders to an obnoxious level, I live-trapped it, drove it across the river and up to a park, before releasing it. The trip was nervewracking as the thought of that furious animal popping the trap to run free in the car was vivid and plausible at the time
posted by ginger.beef at 8:36 PM on December 22, 2024 [4 favorites]
One of the sweeter things I saw this past spring in our western courtyard were a baby squirrel and baby cottontail rabbit chasing each other around for a couple of weeks while they were still tiny. They just played and played and played.
posted by y2karl at 8:44 PM on December 22, 2024 [12 favorites]
posted by y2karl at 8:44 PM on December 22, 2024 [12 favorites]
Here in California, and I assume most of the US, hunters make a big distinction between "tree squirrels" and "ground squirrels."
Tree squirrels are favored table fare since frontier times, and are generally clean and free of disease. The ones I've shot didn't even have fleas.
Ground squirrels, on the other hand, are filthy little bastards. Literally covered in dirt, as they are a burrowing species. You can imagine the flea situation in their communal burrows. This is why ground squirrels are a reservoir species for bubonic plague.
Ground squirrels also carry trichinosis, which is an interesting trick if you're supposedly just eating nuts and seeds (or even insects and bird eggs).
posted by ryanrs at 8:45 PM on December 22, 2024 [3 favorites]
Tree squirrels are favored table fare since frontier times, and are generally clean and free of disease. The ones I've shot didn't even have fleas.
Ground squirrels, on the other hand, are filthy little bastards. Literally covered in dirt, as they are a burrowing species. You can imagine the flea situation in their communal burrows. This is why ground squirrels are a reservoir species for bubonic plague.
Ground squirrels also carry trichinosis, which is an interesting trick if you're supposedly just eating nuts and seeds (or even insects and bird eggs).
posted by ryanrs at 8:45 PM on December 22, 2024 [3 favorites]
generally clean and free of disease
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and eating squirrel brains
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:53 PM on December 22, 2024 [2 favorites]
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and eating squirrel brains
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:53 PM on December 22, 2024 [2 favorites]
Oh yeah, I forgot about squirrel brains.
I wonder how they're passing that around?
posted by ryanrs at 9:04 PM on December 22, 2024 [1 favorite]
I wonder how they're passing that around?
posted by ryanrs at 9:04 PM on December 22, 2024 [1 favorite]
My neighbor made the observation that in my neighborhood the squirrels used to dart half way across the street and then double back, behavior that got a lot of them flattened. Now they just run across the street without stopping.
posted by Pembquist at 9:06 PM on December 22, 2024
posted by Pembquist at 9:06 PM on December 22, 2024
Reading the article I see these are a slightly different kind of squirrel then I was initially thinking. In my parts the only ground squirrels we have are chipmunks and it'd be unusual for them to be carnivorous. However, the main variety of tree squirrel locally, the eastern grey squirrel is 100% carnivorous. You see them regularly raiding birds nests, eating carrion, eating insects, eating smaller rodents and they are known to practice infanticide. Squirrels in general also pose a threat to the electrical grid.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:20 PM on December 22, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:20 PM on December 22, 2024 [2 favorites]
In my parts the only ground squirrels we have are chipmunks and it'd be unusual for them to be carnivorous.
One time my sister and I were out in her yard when we heard a little crunching sound. We looked around and discovered it was a chipmunk crunching the bones of the dead bird it was eating. It probably didn't kill the bird itself, but who knows?
posted by Redstart at 9:27 PM on December 22, 2024 [2 favorites]
One time my sister and I were out in her yard when we heard a little crunching sound. We looked around and discovered it was a chipmunk crunching the bones of the dead bird it was eating. It probably didn't kill the bird itself, but who knows?
posted by Redstart at 9:27 PM on December 22, 2024 [2 favorites]
There are no squirrels in Iceland, and foreigners who’re aware of that fact can sometimes spot Icelanders abroad because they’re the only people who stare at squirrels in city parks.
Ahhh, so the Londoners spotting me taking photos of squirrels in the 1980s thought I was from Iceland. (There are no squirrels in Australia, either.)
They chew their way into anything … I've fed a squirrel from my hand
You had me worried about where this was going for a moment.
posted by rory at 11:40 PM on December 22, 2024 [4 favorites]
Ahhh, so the Londoners spotting me taking photos of squirrels in the 1980s thought I was from Iceland. (There are no squirrels in Australia, either.)
They chew their way into anything … I've fed a squirrel from my hand
You had me worried about where this was going for a moment.
posted by rory at 11:40 PM on December 22, 2024 [4 favorites]
California ground squirrels are intense.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 3:42 AM on December 23, 2024
posted by St. Peepsburg at 3:42 AM on December 23, 2024
Nope, not unusual for chipmunks to eat a carnivorous diet.
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:22 AM on December 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:22 AM on December 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
So what cute animal is going to disappoint us next?
posted by njohnson23 at 8:33 AM on December 23, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by njohnson23 at 8:33 AM on December 23, 2024 [2 favorites]
I won't even eat a squirrel. And people eat squirrels down here in Florida.
posted by spata at 10:09 AM on December 23, 2024
posted by spata at 10:09 AM on December 23, 2024
“It’s a wonderful way for them to capitalize on a very abundant resource"
"Wonderful" wasn't the first word to come to mind when I was just now exposed to a photo of a squirrel dining on flesh.
posted by kozad at 10:48 AM on December 23, 2024
"Wonderful" wasn't the first word to come to mind when I was just now exposed to a photo of a squirrel dining on flesh.
posted by kozad at 10:48 AM on December 23, 2024
So what cute animal is going to disappoint us next?
Venomous Capybaras?
posted by y2karl at 10:50 AM on December 23, 2024
Venomous Capybaras?
posted by y2karl at 10:50 AM on December 23, 2024
*5 seconds later* We regret to inform you the squirrel is carnivorous
posted by saturday_morning at 11:31 AM on December 23, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by saturday_morning at 11:31 AM on December 23, 2024 [3 favorites]
ALSO PLAGUE VECTOR. don't feed the sqwerls.
No more than any other mammal that can carry fleas? And Yersinia pestis is pretty easily fixed with antibiotics and supportive care, these days.
(Squirrels are not really a zoonotic disease vector in any significant way. They have lower rates of rabies infection than almost any other common mammal, and there are 0 known cases of squirrel-to-human rabies transmission. Hantavirus and leptospirosis are much more common in rats, mice, and rabbits. Etc.)
posted by adrienneleigh at 12:23 PM on December 23, 2024 [3 favorites]
No more than any other mammal that can carry fleas? And Yersinia pestis is pretty easily fixed with antibiotics and supportive care, these days.
(Squirrels are not really a zoonotic disease vector in any significant way. They have lower rates of rabies infection than almost any other common mammal, and there are 0 known cases of squirrel-to-human rabies transmission. Hantavirus and leptospirosis are much more common in rats, mice, and rabbits. Etc.)
posted by adrienneleigh at 12:23 PM on December 23, 2024 [3 favorites]
Yersinia pestis is pretty easily fixed with antibiotics
indeed, as long as someone figures out you've got bubonic plague and gives you the right antibiotics. many contagious diseases begin with "flu-like symptoms" and are assumed to be viral. I'd rather not risk that! of course I am chicken-sitting for the neighbors this week, so I'm currently just worried about H5N1 instead.
posted by supermedusa at 12:51 PM on December 23, 2024 [3 favorites]
indeed, as long as someone figures out you've got bubonic plague and gives you the right antibiotics. many contagious diseases begin with "flu-like symptoms" and are assumed to be viral. I'd rather not risk that! of course I am chicken-sitting for the neighbors this week, so I'm currently just worried about H5N1 instead.
posted by supermedusa at 12:51 PM on December 23, 2024 [3 favorites]
It was only a few years ago I saw a squirrel on our local campus dragging some body part of something along somewhere else to enjoy. My wife has spied one carrying the head of another in its maw. This is unsurprising.
Incidentally, I've been bitten by a squirrel and gosh, it smarted for a moment. My sister was hand raising an injured juvenile that her husband found laying in a parking lot. It was named Violet and got along wonderfully with everyone in my family as it grew older. Then when I met it, it bit me.
This was my second time being bitten by a small furry creature, joining the list that had mole on it. I'm waiting to manifest either squirrel or mole powers, but so far, no luck. No bushy tail or fine velvet coat.
posted by Atreides at 2:37 PM on December 23, 2024 [3 favorites]
Incidentally, I've been bitten by a squirrel and gosh, it smarted for a moment. My sister was hand raising an injured juvenile that her husband found laying in a parking lot. It was named Violet and got along wonderfully with everyone in my family as it grew older. Then when I met it, it bit me.
This was my second time being bitten by a small furry creature, joining the list that had mole on it. I'm waiting to manifest either squirrel or mole powers, but so far, no luck. No bushy tail or fine velvet coat.
posted by Atreides at 2:37 PM on December 23, 2024 [3 favorites]
supermedusa: Well, the buboes are kind of a clue, with plague! (The pneumonic form of plague, which is the one that looks like the flu, is generally spread via human-to-human transmission; animal-to-human transmission is normally bubonic or septicemic, and both of those are a lot more obvious.)
posted by adrienneleigh at 2:42 PM on December 23, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by adrienneleigh at 2:42 PM on December 23, 2024 [2 favorites]
I had a girlfriend whose mother had a cat with half the tail with which he was born due to an unfortunate encounter with a squirrel.
posted by y2karl at 3:41 PM on December 23, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by y2karl at 3:41 PM on December 23, 2024 [2 favorites]
Bubonic plague has a 10% mortality rate with treatment. Don't brush that off.
posted by ryanrs at 7:49 PM on December 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by ryanrs at 7:49 PM on December 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
Bubonic plague has a 10% mortality rate with treatment. Don't brush that off.
Sure, but it's also fairly hard to get, and only endemic to a few very small parts of the US. Like, it's not a harmless disease, but it's really, really not something you need to have on your personal list of "why you shouldn't feed squirrels", unless you live in one of like three states and are hanging out with a lot of squirrels.
posted by adrienneleigh at 10:11 PM on December 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
Sure, but it's also fairly hard to get, and only endemic to a few very small parts of the US. Like, it's not a harmless disease, but it's really, really not something you need to have on your personal list of "why you shouldn't feed squirrels", unless you live in one of like three states and are hanging out with a lot of squirrels.
posted by adrienneleigh at 10:11 PM on December 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
They really didn't understand the assignment. They were supposed to wear the voles as hats, not eat them.
posted by Ashenmote at 3:10 AM on December 24, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by Ashenmote at 3:10 AM on December 24, 2024 [1 favorite]
Just seen a squirrel in my garden for the first time in the 10+ years since we moved here. They're coming for me! Help me mods!
posted by biffa at 4:25 AM on December 24, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by biffa at 4:25 AM on December 24, 2024 [2 favorites]
[MODS: WE CAN LOCK THE POST BUT NOT YOUR DOOR. SORRY.]
posted by Atreides at 6:48 AM on December 24, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Atreides at 6:48 AM on December 24, 2024 [2 favorites]
I had a girlfriend whose mother had a cat with half the tail with which he was born due to an unfortunate encounter with a squirrel.
Well among the ridiculously robust population around our house we routinely see squirrels with half the tails they were born with due to unfortunate encounters with, we've always presumed, hawks, foxes, coyotes and raccoons. As my wife's father was fond of saying (perhaps recalling a famous Lucky Strike campaign from the 30's), nature in the raw is seldom mild.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 10:55 AM on December 24, 2024 [1 favorite]
Well among the ridiculously robust population around our house we routinely see squirrels with half the tails they were born with due to unfortunate encounters with, we've always presumed, hawks, foxes, coyotes and raccoons. As my wife's father was fond of saying (perhaps recalling a famous Lucky Strike campaign from the 30's), nature in the raw is seldom mild.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 10:55 AM on December 24, 2024 [1 favorite]
I don't know how I could find the post, but I recall someone on Metafilter writing that they saw squirrels in a Moscow park take down a dog.
posted by rochrobbb at 4:29 PM on December 24, 2024
posted by rochrobbb at 4:29 PM on December 24, 2024
Well, tried the obvious (searching) and it might have been this post.
posted by rochrobbb at 4:35 PM on December 24, 2024
posted by rochrobbb at 4:35 PM on December 24, 2024
I wasn’t kidding about Icelanders’ fascination with squirrels. Today on Icelandic radio there was an interview in with the husband of the new Icelandic ambassador to the US, and in it he mentions that the whole family has started feeding squirrels, and now ten squirrels show up in their backyard every evening for a snack. The bit about the squirrels was considered notable enough to be in the web version’s headline.
posted by Kattullus at 12:15 PM on December 25, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Kattullus at 12:15 PM on December 25, 2024 [2 favorites]
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posted by lalochezia at 1:55 PM on December 22, 2024 [2 favorites]