Squirrel Fights off Crows - Protects Dead Friend's Body

"Nature Bulletin, No. 5
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Clayton F. Smith, President
Roberts Mann, Superintendent of Conservation

****:SQUIRRELS

Take a good look at the next squirrel you see. Watch him come, head-
first, down a tree; and notice that his hind legs have a sort of swivel
joint at the ankle so that his sharp-clawed feet can be turned completely
around. Notice the tiny button "thumbs" between which he holds the bit
of food he eats. Notice that his eyes, like those of rabbits and other
vegetable-eaters, are placed at the sides of his head so that he can watch
for his enemies: the cats and hawks. Compare them with the
forward-looking eyes of the meat-eaters such as the cat, the dog, the
hawk and man himself."

For anyone to think that this squirrel was defending his dead "friend", you obviously know nothing about nature.

Squirrels do eat flesh, and will cannibalize their dead neighbors without a second thought.
You people put too much human psychology into the equation; these are not people

if only more humans were like animals..

how typical three blacks vs 1 little grey guy

chicken fuckers

Oh my gosh, this is freaking me bad. One nice spring afternoon last week, our young adult outdoor cat 'Mitzi (a few tears - we loved her so, very magic, sweet kitty), she was a smaller size animal, was found dead hanging from the branches of a tall tree in the yard but about 8 feet above ground.

She hadn't been dead more than half hour or so - maybe, as still warm & not stiff. She was hanging with the torso's back end caught in the Y of 2 branches, and trunk w/ head extended down close to a branch below (like maybe she fell from higher up & then struck head on branch below that broke her neck but no obvious signs of such. There was some blood in her mouth draining out but no other injuries I could find or feel after getting her body down.

Reason I'm telling / asking about this is here is the word : Crows .... lately, we've had these big crows coming in from the countryside & raiding bird feed we put out. These crows are huge, shining black feathers, and look like they might be bad news for a smaller cat.

Question is this: Could it have been that my cat was up at top of tree, waiting for a bird to catch and a crow came along and there was a battle or ??? Are crows agressive towards smaller animals & would they attack the cat to snag it as if to eat it like would a bird of prey? I was wondering if the cat jumped after a bird, missed it and then fell.

A friend says that Hawks (have those around here but never seen on landed in our yard) might have tried to snare the cat then dropped it from above the tree when it put up a fight ... hence the force to break the neck, if that's what's happened. Vet was going to charge a bunch of $$ to see what caused death so we just froze it overnight in their morgue then had it cremated next day for kid's to have the ashes and doing that option was like $ 120. The cat death investigation by Vet was gonna cost at least $ 250 just for him to look at it & x-ray the neck. And a nice little cat grave at the local pet cemetery runs $ 500 --- no way -- we be too poor for that!

Anyone that knows about crows that could help us, thanks , we've been so sad and it might help us heal to find out what may have taken place so as to prevent it in future - if possible.

Ditto I bet AC 954689 likes to take candy from children and beat puppies too

You must be from New York.

Wow! That's crazy!

I should have said that squirrels are predominantly herbivores. Some apparently will sometimes munch on flesh.

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Squirrels are scavengers.
They aren't carnivores in the sense that they will kill to eat, but they will munch on carrion.

They are just rats with cute fluffy tails and sharp claws.

They may eat their own but still look cute doing it.

I know, it's disgusting.

One time we had this old shed in the back that some rats got into. So I'd set some traps every day in there. But the rats that didn't get caught in the trap would cannibalize the ones that did. It was disgusting checking those traps everyday.

I finally knew I caught the last rat when the cannibalizing stopped.

But, everyone knows rats are disgusting. It's disappointing about the squirrels because they are so cute.

Well chip anyways

Or was that dale?

Rats are the muslims of the animal kingdom.

The squirrel was just protecting dinner...


Those of you who think that they are herbivores are grossly mistaken.

The will eat anything..including electrical wire on houses. Squirrels are basically rats and will eat anything.


sidenote: I had a rat as a pet once that my snake didnt eat, and it was one of the smartest, fun pets that I have ever had.

there's alot of people who are rat fanciers, there's websites where you can buy fancy rats.

A Colorado squirrel would have fired several warning shots at the crows.

Taken his friend, had a nice funeral/burial for him/her in an unknown spot so the crows could never get to its body.

The Colorado squirrel would go and visit his friends grave site every year .....and put its favorite nut at the grave site.

There is nothing "cute" about that video. After a little youtube search I saw squirrels eating other squirrels. Yes he was simply protecting his dinner, nothing more. The world is a harsh place, isn't always like a Disney movie:(

GREAT STUFF

Oh, now thats just wrong. Hundred's of bubbles just burst on GLP

exactly they are they big time scavengers. Sorry I've watched them and not my type of cute. same as a coyote they also have cute tails.

lol @ all you people still being angry at the guy who first posted the truth. disney really had his dick deep in your brain.

Why didn't you just bury the cat in your yard?
If I even thought the crows were involved..i'd execute a shit load of them....
That's just me though...

Last Edited by SPUD on 04/27/2010 05:49 PM

in the last video, it was giving it mouth to mouth, trying to revive it.

Very sad.. I've seen videos of dogs and birds doing the same thing..

As if you were not living by instinct...

Don't underestimate the intelligence of animals. Some animals do have a greater brain capacity than humans. A proven fact.

The cute and fluffy animal kingdoms dirty little secret is now revealed.

Yea well, squirrels have to eat. I still think they are awesome.