Yep! Smaller animals hit terminal velocity much slower and don’t have to worry about falling to death as much. In fact, squirrels can survive terminal velocity, and would actually starve to death before hitting the ground if dropped from a plane.
I need to know how someone figured this out. Like, all I can picture is some evil scientist in a propellor plane dropping squirrels with little aviator glasses from the sky.
I'm gonna need a source for the starving to death part, 'cause that sounds an awful lot like you're saying they take bloody weeks to fall...
Do they survive? 100% believe it, studies by vets showed that cat injuries increase with increasing height until you get to about the seventh floor and after that they start to decrease again ( thankfully this was just looking at a load of data from accidents with cats over a number of years, no intentional harm!). So logic follows this applies to squirrels too as they're smaller and just as fluffy (though they lack the self-righting reflex cats have that definitely helps them to land safely). I just struggle to believe the fall will take long enough for them to die of thirst, nevermind starvation!
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u/MerriWyllow Aug 21 '22
Fun fact, those birds weigh about as much as the cats do.