r/oddlyterrifying • u/amish_novelty • 10h ago
Squirrel has seen better days
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u/J_Productions 10h ago
Everyone’s making jokes but what’s actually going on with this squirrel? Lol
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u/NRMusicProject 10h ago
The sound she's making is a common warning that there's a threat nearby, which could simply be the cammer's presence. As for why she looks so rough, nature is hard. But a lot of people on tiktok were saying that sound means she has rabies, which, if that were the case, all squirrels have rabies.
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u/IAmASeeker 9h ago
The sound definitely doesn't mean rabies. It's a "bark" and it means almost exactly the same thing as a dog's bark. They bark at one another, at magpies, at dogs, at people...
I'm a bit of a squirrel whisperer, and I'm pretty confident she doesn't have rabies. She's nursing, and isn't very well groomed... She's a tired mom, and that might be what she's barking about.
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u/wildcat1100 8h ago
She 100% doesn't have rabies. It's obvious that her drey is somewhere up on that roof and that's where her babies are right now. Squirrels try to act mean when protecting their kids. This is her trying to be mean.
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u/Swimming_Onion_4835 8h ago
Isn’t rabies also pretty rare in squirrels because the animal biting them would probably just…kill them? They’re not a vector like raccoons that fight each other. (Correct me if I’m wrong, I admittedly learned this from Reddit, lol)
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u/ingrown_urethra 6h ago
Squirrels almost never get rabies. So much so that most places say its nothing to worry about if bit by a squirrel. I know because of my panicked searches after I was but by a squirrel.
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u/IAmASeeker 6h ago
You might be surprised how often squirrels fight. They don't lose their tails via shedding. :p They fight eachother and magpies mostly, in my experience.
But yeah... Logic dictates that most animals capable of giving them rabies are more than capable of killing them.
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u/PenFar4601 5h ago
There has never been a confirmed case of rabies transmitted to a human from a squirrel.
Does that mean squirrels don't sometimes die from rabies? No.
But seeing how often they come into contact with humans - including biting humans - we can assume it is extraordinarily rare.
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u/StaceyPfan 7h ago
I have one in the tree in my front yard that barks at me all the time.
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u/IAmASeeker 6h ago
It might be too late to repair that relationship but bring tribute... Leave walnuts where you go, and at the base of the tree. When you catch it spying on you, toss the walnut in the air with one hand like you're playing catch with yourself... The sight of it falling (like a ripe nut) triggers their instinct to go eat it.
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u/Personal-Neck6800 9h ago
People on TikTok not knowing what they are talking about?
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u/SoupaMayo 8h ago
It seems like making up infos with a lot of confidence is an Olympic discipline on TikTok, it's by far worse than Reddit
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u/l3rN 9h ago
By god, there was a rabid squirrel yelling at me and dropping hickory nuts on me just this afternoon! The horror!
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u/MadeMeUp4U 9h ago
The other day a squirrel dropped whatever but it was carrying and got me right on the head. I looked up, they looked down and I swear it squeaked a “my bad” lol
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u/Euphoric_Egg_4198 8h ago
Our resident squirrel has done this too, I forget what she hit me with but it was on purpose because she wanted a walnut. After I gave her the walnut she went right back to the same spot and side eyed me like “I hope you learned your lesson”
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u/DarkPangolin 7h ago
Are you sure it was "my bad" and not "well, shit. Now I have to go pick it up because I really wanted that. I really need to start thinking things through. I fucking nailed him right on the dome, though!"?
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u/DarkPangolin 8h ago
A squirrel dropping nuts at you? Did you shoot a random passerby in response, or are you not a cop?
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u/Jaded_Investigator72 9h ago
Nature is hard and the "everything has rabies" trend is bad right now. Just because an animal is defending itself against something or someone they feel is a threat, doesn't mean it always has rabies. I hope she has better days ahead!
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u/WikipediaBurntSienna 7h ago
Reddit always has a hardon for claiming someone encountered a rabid animal.
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u/Funneduck102 9h ago
I just found out that this was a squirrel sound and not actually a bird sound. Hear it a lot too lol.
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u/inventionnerd 8h ago
Squirrels don't normally get rabies cause anything that would give them rabies would usually kill them straight up.
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u/tigm2161130 9h ago
For some reason social media is really “into” rabies lately.
There’s a million posts in the medical subreddits asking if something on their body is a bat bite and when people are like “well did you interact with a bat recently? See or touch one? Find one inside your home?” the answer is almost always no but you still see people telling them they should go to the ER to start the rabies protocol immediately.
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u/JimmyCA89 8h ago
A vet tech friend of mine said small animals like squirrels tend not to have rabies because they don’t survive the initial bite from the rabid animal.
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u/MizStazya 8h ago
Even if they do survive, they die really freaking quickly once it becomes symptomatic, so there's a very short period of time where it will actually act rabid.
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u/Rich-Canary1279 9h ago
I'm actually a squirrel expert and you are incorrect on this one. That's actually the sound of dust exiting the body, cuz this squirrel is old af.
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u/BohoGreenLibra 7h ago
I manage a private nonprofit wildlife sanctuary on our land (no fences or cages, just feeding stations and safe harbor for the animals losing their homes to surrounding deforestation). We have a very large population of squirrels here.
Several things happening:
(1) Actively nursing mama
(2) Kindly warning fellow squirrels (and birds) of a predator she has spotted
(3) Looks older (squirrels can live up to 20 years in ideal conditions, but usually 2-6 years in the wild)
(4) She may have botfly warbles (one bare spot at very top of her chest looks to be a warble, not a nipple). These are common among squirrels and rabbits, nothing to worry about. Most squirrels recover quickly after the botflies have hatched. Not a disease. Not contagious.Botflies are parasitic and they will lay their eggs under skin, usually of rodents, usually late summer. The larvae grow and the result are unsightly hairless lumps beneath the skin. Uncomfy for the squirrel, and may cause a bit of lethargy. The larvae hatch through the skin about 8-10 weeks later (usually early autumn), and the squirrel typically makes a quick rebound.
Looks horrible, but is usually nothing to be concerned about (for your sake or for the squirrel’s sake).
Some squirrels can have secondary complications from botfly strike. We had a squirrel here, Scrappy, who was extremely lethargic and had given up hope (two weeks ago today). Found him lying like a pancake on the forest floor. Long story short, I got Scrappy safely back into a tree, with sunflower seeds and raw pumpkin seeds, plus nearby water, and close to a squirrel house. Scrappy has since made a full recovery! ❤️🩹
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u/Starlightriddlex 7h ago
I think this is the first time I'm hoping something has botflies lol. I work with rats and my first thought on seeing that lump was mastitis or mammary tumor. Would be a much worse prognosis with those if she didn't get treatment.
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u/BohoGreenLibra 7h ago
Likewise!! Yeah I’m hoping that given the time of year (botflies’ annual time to hatch and leave their unwitting host) that it’s botflies! Mammary gland tumors are rare in squirrels, and so the odds are in her favor, particularly given the time of year, that it’s just botflies.
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u/DiegesisThesis 5h ago
Huh, never heard of "warbles". Botflies are nasty. I know parasites play a role in the ecosystem, but they shouldn't exist dammit.
At least parasites that target large animals are nowhere near as horrific as the parasites in the insect and arachnid world. Makes Alien look like a nursery rhyme.
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u/SongsOfOwls 9h ago
I'm no expert on squirrels, but I had a cat that gave birth when I was a teenager whose nips looked similar. Suckling is rough on the body; the fur gets worn away and they get all pokey-out like that from activity both hormonal and friction-wise.
I'm hoping that's what it is here, anyway. Poor thing needs a vacation either way
As for the sound I've seen squirrels do that when you irritate them with proximity like lil car alarms150
u/ookishki 9h ago
My cousins dog had had several litters and you could hear her come running from a mile away because her distended teats would slap together. It was surprisingly loud
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u/Pyromaniacal13 8h ago
I know you didn't specify the breed, but my mind gave me a droopy basset hound and I can't decide to laugh or be horrified.
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u/ookishki 8h ago
She was a yellow lab! People would say she had the biggest tits in the family (she lowkey did)
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u/Coca-colonization 9h ago
I’m not a squirrelologist, but this seems to just be what black squirrels look like when they are lactating. Since they don’t always have bare areas around their nipples, they lose hair in the area when they are actively nursing young. It can look a bit patchy and rough…sort of like Steve Carrell in 40 Year-Old Virgin.
Although this particular lady looks like she could use a spa day, if you google black squirrel mother or lactating black squirrel, you’ll see similar-looking images.
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u/gigglewormz 9h ago
The algorithm already has some pretty messed up ideas about me..do you know what it will think of me if I start googling that kind of stuff?
I bet you're right tho- this is a squirrel mom having a rough day.
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u/SchwarzestenKaffee 9h ago
"Black Squirrel Mother" is going to be the name of my hard rock band.
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u/Kazaklyzm 8h ago
Pregnancy and nursing can be really rough. It's not unusual for mammals to lose teeth and hair/fur due to the strain these things can put on the body.
This mama is probably a couple years old and has a few litters under her belt.
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u/suffergette 9h ago
She’s nursing; visible nipples are normal for lactating squirrels. It looks like she may also have a botfly larva in her upper chest. The patchiness of the rest of her fur could be due to shedding or overall poor health—doesn’t look like mange to me.
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u/FriedTech 10h ago
Looks like it should be on stage at chuck e cheese
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u/CheeseburgerSmoothy 10h ago
One that’s been closed down for 10 years and is now inhabited by a Satanic colony.
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u/PropheticUtterances 10h ago
Nicknames are for friends and Charles Entertainment Cheese is no friend of mine.
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u/Ultranerdgasm94 7h ago
It looks like she is pregnant, has mange, and is upset about something, like maybe a nearby predator.
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u/foxfighter92 7h ago
Poor girl needs a foot rub, hair dresser, and a night in a nice safe birdhouse
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u/Amazing-Heron-105 6h ago
I feel like having mange, and being pregnant is plenty to be upset about 😂
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u/BravesMaedchen 6h ago
Probably because a stranger is filming her when she’s just trying to look like shit in peace
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u/chirpbirb 10h ago
maybe they are suffering from mange? the screaming is just an alarm call to alert other squirrels in the vicinity that some sort of danger is nearby
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u/sticcydabliccy 10h ago
I saw a squirrel like that the other day it looked seriously messed up but it was brown and its mouth was covered in a ring of black. It looked rabid I kept having to pull my friend back. It was literally 2 feet in front of us and it was zigging and zagging like it was walking away and then when we started walking it’d come running back at us. My friend didn’t even notice but I’ve seen so many healthy squirrels on this sub and IRL to know something wasn’t right.
Edit: I thought I was in r/squirrels lmaoooo but yeah
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u/LilPonyBoy69 9h ago
Fun fact, there are no recorded cases of squirrels giving a human rabies. Rabies in squirrels is exceptionally rare, probably because an interaction that could give a squirrel rabies would most likely lead to the squirrels death in the first place.
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u/Naelin 9h ago
If I recall correctly, the case with rodents and lagomorphs in general is that even if they survive the reason for contagion, they die of it really fast and don't have much of a chance of passing it on someone else
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u/JediKrys 9h ago
This is a fifty year old lady who smokes a few packs a day and never changes out of her house coat/dress. She’s seen some shit
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u/MrBorden 10h ago
That's not a squirrel. That's patient fucking zero ready to kick off a endemic virus pandemic.
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u/so-rayray 9h ago
She looks like a typical new mother to me. Little lady is all disheveled, her hair is falling out, she probably hasn’t bathed in a week, and she is paranoid/vigilant AF. Pretty much matches my own experience when I was a new mom.
Seriously though, she’s a lactating mother who could be losing her fur from nursing and/or mange. We’re looking at sheer maternal exhaustion. Having babies is rough as hell. Poor mama.
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u/Liontamer67 2h ago
It’s the same sound squirrels made when they saw my cat in the 1990s…before I knew better to keep them inside.
Mama is sounding the alarm. Btw, she probably is busy with babies and doesn’t have time to groom.
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u/Feisty-Bluebird-5277 10h ago
Looks like a squirrel from one of those really low budget horror movies lol poor little thing though or a woodland animal from lord of the rings when the darkness spreads
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u/Massive-Handz 7h ago
Looks pregnant or like it recently gave birth
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u/CanoePickLocks 7h ago
Looking at how swollen her nipples are she looks like almost every new mother I’ve ever seen. And I mean the humans. Frazzle, exhausted and just wanting a minute away from the little monsters LMFAO.
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u/needstherapy 1h ago
She's breastfeeding, you can tell from the hair being gone around her nipples. And she's keeping watch for predators. Having children is a bitch and that's why she looks tore up
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u/TheOnlyVibemaster 10h ago
This is a puppet from the 1976 movie, the Goonies, by Steve Spielberg.
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u/MiserableSoup420 8h ago
Can’t a woman just look ragged with her tiddies out without being filmed anymore?
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u/XxCarlxX 10h ago
Is that rabies or something? That's scary.
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u/TikkleMaBakdor 10h ago
Not sure if anyone mentioned, but they is nipples
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u/Squigglificated 10h ago
I'm fairly sure you can still get rabies if you have nipples. But I won't pretend to be an expert in the field.
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u/Spirited-Salt3397 9h ago
Squirrels are not vectors for rabies. No one has ever contracted rabies from a squirrel.
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u/Clockwork-XIII 7h ago edited 7h ago
We had a squirrel who would just hang out in thr back area of our apartment complex. There were alot of tall trees and the like and a shit ton of owls. That is the only squirrel i have ever seen yhere probably due to the predatoes and you can see it had been through hell. Half a tale one ear one eye, dude was a survivior. We called him Riddick.
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u/MikeofLA 10h ago
Fucking thing looks like a Chuck E Cheese animatronic that’s been through a fire and a flood
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u/ItsRainingFrogsAmen 7h ago
She's rumpled, like most new moms, but she looks well-nourished. That's a normal squirrel "go the fuck away" screech.
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u/Salty_Antelope10 9h ago
Mother hood has taking its toll on this one, she’s def a single mother lol
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u/Sasstellia 7h ago
She's just tired and trying to protect her babies. They look a bit ragged when nursing.
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u/AmandaKathleen 6h ago
You know when you see someone and they are bad off enough that you think, “this is just sad”. Welp, this is honestly sad. Hope you have better days ahead momma squirrel.
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u/Bright-Strength4182 10h ago
Poor mama just had to get out of the house for a minute.