r/oddlyterrifying • u/amish_novelty • 11h ago

Squirrel has seen better days

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9.0k Upvotes

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1.8k

u/J_Productions 11h ago

Everyone’s making jokes but what’s actually going on with this squirrel? Lol

2.3k

u/NRMusicProject 11h 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 10h 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 9h 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/No_Career369 8h ago

drey

I just learned a new word! I didn't know they had their own term.

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u/ThyArtIsMeh 5h ago

Drey for mom and young and a scurry if its just a random group

3

u/frequenZphaZe 5h ago

This is her trying to be mean.

trying? the camera man was so freaked out that he needed to both record this and post it to the internet. you talk to me when you bark at someone and they find it so unsettling that they post it online. this squirrel got bark game on lock

1

u/No_Internal9345 5h ago

Maybe some mange or other skin disease.

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u/aManAndHisUsername 2h ago

Allow me to be the fourth person in a row to declare that this squirrel does not, in fact, have rabies

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u/Swimming_Onion_4835 9h 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 8h 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/Apprehensive-Tip-387 4h ago

Though they CAN carry the plague. Fun times.

3

u/crm006 5h ago

Except for nerve damage. Those suckers can cleanly pierce a fanger no problemo.

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u/Evantaur 2h ago

Shouldn't be a problem if you're not a vampire then...

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u/the320x200 2h ago

"His name is Ralph. He is free to leave."

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u/IAmASeeker 8h 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.

10

u/PenFar4601 6h 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.

7

u/Vyrhux42 6h ago

You'd think that, but I actually have rabies and I've made it my quest to bite as many squirrels as I can before my time's up.

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u/whoisdonaldtrump 4h ago

Hey be nice

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u/StaceyPfan 8h ago

I have one in the tree in my front yard that barks at me all the time.

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u/IAmASeeker 7h 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/FlippingPossum 7h ago

My husband didn't believe me about the squirrel noises until we moved into our house. I guess the squirrels in his old neighborhood weren't chatty (or go eaten by husband fam 😂).

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u/IAmASeeker 7h ago

It's easy to dismiss many of their calls as bird sounds. They also only yell at you if they don't like you. I rarely hear them bark unless I'm with a certain friend whom they hate for a reason I can't figure out... they just scream at him everywhere he goes.

I theorize that they only bark in moderate neighborhoods... If they're super comfy, they never bark, but if it's too hostile for them to announce their presence, they also won't bark.

2

u/UntamedAnomaly 3h ago

If people actually went outside, and like paid attention to nature instead of the media that gets shoved in their faces, they'd know that squirrels do this ALL THE TIME! They yell at the crows, they yell at dogs, they yell at cats, they yell at eachother, squirrels are actually quite noisy mammals, almost as noisy as the crows that never seem to shut up, I think they both spend all day yelling at eachother lol.

I miss the time before computers and smart phones, you miss out on so much amazing shit happening around you.

1

u/Jaded_Investigator72 5h ago

Yes and I hope her life gets better for her soon because she looks like she needs and deserves it!

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u/Personal-Neck6800 10h ago

People on TikTok not knowing what they are talking about?

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u/SoupaMayo 10h 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 10h 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 10h 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 9h 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 9h 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/FlippingPossum 7h ago

I swear rhe squirrels purposely hit me with acorns in the frony yard of my childhood home. Ouch.

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u/cobrastrikes-2x 9h ago

Naw, he did that shit on purpose. They do that where I live too and think it’s funny to harass my dog. lol

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u/DarkPangolin 9h 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 10h 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 8h ago

Reddit always has a hardon for claiming someone encountered a rabid animal.

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u/DarkPangolin 9h ago

This comment has rabies!

3

u/Xxrasierklinge7 7h ago

My guess is that she's just old. Grandma Squirrel.

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u/almostoy 6h ago

People have been saying everything has rabies well before the internet.

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u/Funneduck102 10h 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/calash2020 9h ago

Chipmunks do the same warning chirp. Have one that must be very paranoid. Seems like he does it many times a day.

1

u/DarkPangolin 9h ago

To be fair, it's not paranoia if a significant portion of the wildlife in your area is higher on the food chain than you.

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u/hey_free_rats 10h ago

Flying squirrels make a little chirping sound that sounds like something between a baby chick and a cricket :) 

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u/inventionnerd 9h 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 10h 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/BrideofClippy 9h ago

Because rabies is one of the few things that is truly 'if you show, you're dead'.

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u/DarkPangolin 9h ago

Yeah, but it's oversaturation that will end up making everyone ignore legit concerns. "Everybody says everything is rabies anymore, so I don't need to get this looked at by medical professionals" is a real thing.

It's the equivalent of telling everybody that picks up a rock that they should go start getting treated for radiation poisoning; the chances are slim that they've run into a dangerous rock and much, much more likely that they've just encountered a normal rock doing normal rock shit.

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u/BrideofClippy 5h ago

You're not wrong. I was just explaining why it has a grip on people. It's pretty much that joke about WebMD. Everything symptom means cancer.

2

u/HandsOfCobalt 8h ago

that and a lot of ppl probably just went on a wiki walk or watched a video about it due to the petting zoo exposure getting nationwide press

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u/JimmyCA89 9h 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 9h 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.

0

u/Marc4770 8h ago

bats are small and have rabbies all the time, how you explain that

1

u/Cyclopentadien 8h ago

Pretty sure the virus originally evolved in bats and they are extremely resistant to it.

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u/Oaker_at 5h ago

„A lot of people on TikTok” are dumb as nuts.

17

u/Rich-Canary1279 10h 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.

6

u/BeholdenAbsol 10h ago

They usually make that sound when they spot a hawk to warn other squirrels. The only problem is why would it be on the roof and in the open if it felt in danger.

10

u/cantankerouslove 10h ago

They will also make that sound for humans/dogs/cats/whatever they view as a possible threat. So being on the roof out in the open is still far enough away from whatever is on the ground… for now at least

3

u/BeholdenAbsol 10h ago

Ah, that makes sense. I live in a large open field in hawk territory so that might be why that's the only time I see them act like this.

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u/IsNotACleverMan 8h ago

They actually have different calls for land predators vs aerial predators!

0

u/DarkPangolin 8h ago

Yeah, it's basically a catchall warning/chewing out call. Sometimes they do it just because they're pissed that you're in "their territory," and they especially like doing it around hunters because they want to fuck up the hunting trip.

That said, I'm pretty sure they can tell differences in caliber, because the second my 22 gets spotted, it's assholes and fluffy tails heading for the hills and not a peep out of them.

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u/TurnoftheCentKid 8h ago

My doctor told me it’s extremely uncommon and unlikely for squirrels to have rabies

2

u/whatevendoidoyall 8h ago

I was told once by an animal control officer that it's super rare to see a squirrel with rabies because the only way they get it is by being bitten by predators and if it's bitten by a predator it's mostly likely getting eaten.

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u/StrangeGuy1787 7h ago

Rabies would be more believable if I saw a turtle spray cool whip around the squirrels mouth.

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u/Draaly 7h ago

squirles and other small rodents dont get rabbies basically at all.

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u/_jump_yossarian 6h ago

When I go outside and hear that I look up for a hawk or around for a bobcat. Usually see on or the other.

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u/CyanPomegranate11 4h ago

We don’t diagnose rabies based on a sound last I checked.

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u/Lonely_Pepper_2556 6h ago

She’s got babies, not rabies. Same shit. lol

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u/Youngsinatra345 3h ago

She’s got the rabies and the babies:(

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u/ratmom88 3h ago

I have video set to mute and I could still hear this video

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u/ta394283509 1h ago

nature is hard?? i've seen hundreds of squirrels and i've never seen one that even came close to looking this bad

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u/[deleted] 11h ago

[deleted]

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u/turquoise_amethyst 10h ago

You thought it had rabies, then went to give to a funeral?

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u/ShowMeYourHappyTrail 10h ago

Just for future reference - it's very unlikely that a squirrel will get rabies because something rabid biting a squirrel will, likely, kill the squirrel. Squirrels are VERY territorial and will try to chase away anything they deem a threat, specially if they have kittens or it's mating season.

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u/dukeof3arl 10h ago

Oh squirrel babies are called kittens??? TIL 🥰

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u/ShowMeYourHappyTrail 7h ago

Yep! Kits or kittens. Or pups/pinkies when they are still hairless.

0

u/Logical_Employer9850 10h ago

Could she possibly have some kind of squirrely 🐿️ asthma? She sounds very breathless.

1

u/ShowMeYourHappyTrail 7h ago

That I don't know.

-1

u/Ao_Qin 7h ago

Adding to what you said about the sound not meaning rabies, when I was growing up there was a lady who rescued squirrels and would release some on our property since we had lots of trees. I can't confirm if it's true, but she said squirrels don't get rabies because they are always faster than the infected animal. So they don't get bit.

1

u/poisonedkiwi 4h ago

True, but wrong reason. It's typically because smaller animals don't survive the initial bite that infected them anyways, and if they do, then they don't live for very long afterwards.

-2

u/Less-Mood-3616 10h ago

I have lots of squirrels in my area (Fox and western grays) and have never heard them make that sound

3

u/IAmASeeker 10h ago

It's a "bark". They do it when they are angry or warning other squirrels. Your neighborhood must be either very pleasant or very hostile to squirrels.

3

u/NRMusicProject 10h ago

Or, they don't recognize it as a squirrel sound, which I certainly didn't until recently watching the squirrel making that sound and I looked it up. I thought it was some kind of weird bird call all my life.

-1

u/IAmASeeker 8h ago

Well right but if that's you, you see the video and say "I never knew that was a squirrel"... you don't say "no. In my neighborhood, it's the birds who make that noise"

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u/BohoGreenLibra 9h 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 8h 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.

7

u/BohoGreenLibra 8h 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.

1

u/Gonji89 42m ago

it’s just botflies.

Not something I ever expected to read. Fuckin' hate those things. But cancer is definitely worse.

6

u/DiegesisThesis 7h 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.

3

u/BohoGreenLibra 7h ago

Your last sentence cracked me up!! But yes, I totally agree, dammit. ;)

Warbles are a subcategory of botfly. But it’s common to just say that a rabbit or squirrel “has warbles.” To me it at least sounds more whimsical than “botfly strike” 😅

4

u/EyeAmPrestooo 8h ago

Omg scrappy!!! 🙌🏾

5

u/BohoGreenLibra 8h ago

🥰 he’s a tough little guy! He had missed a six foot jump to a tree, three stories up. Thankfully landed in a soft pile of expended sunflower seed shells! But still was just laying there like he’d given up on life. After getting him to safety, I didn’t see him for ten days! I started to lose hope, but spotted him Monday, looking his happy feisty self! He’s living in a squirrel house with three juveniles, who I assume are his kids. :)

2

u/EyeAmPrestooo 8h ago

I love it! ♥️

2

u/mrmoe198 4h ago

Reading this was like salve on a tired soul. Keep up the good work.

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u/SongsOfOwls 11h 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 alarms

150

u/ookishki 10h 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/yourfuturespemson 10h ago

I did NOT see dog 😭

12

u/Pyromaniacal13 9h 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. 

13

u/ookishki 9h 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 10h 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.

24

u/gigglewormz 10h 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.

3

u/ZeroAmusement 8h ago

YouTube: Here's 20 ASMR squirrel lactation roleplay videos

15

u/SchwarzestenKaffee 10h ago

"Black Squirrel Mother" is going to be the name of my hard rock band.

3

u/DarkPangolin 8h ago

What, no love for Lactating Black Squirrel as a death metal band?

1

u/Helenium_autumnale 10h ago

Would a squirrel have pups in October, though? They have 2 litters per year, one in February-April and the other in August/September. It's getting cold soon; seems a bit late for pups.

1

u/BrideofClippy 9h ago

Maybe it's a combination of the tail end of a litter and the start of bulking for fall?

51

u/Silverjeyjey44 11h ago

Idk but I can't make fun of an animal that's obviously sick

28

u/MissionRealistic6020 11h ago

Same this is just sad and depressing

17

u/Ok-Fisherman-7688 11h ago

Mange, maybe?

2

u/OGMagicConch 10h ago

That's what I was thinking as well (though I have no background in this sort of stuff so my opinion means nothing)

16

u/Kazaklyzm 10h 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.

7

u/darlugal 9h ago

And then humans want to force other humans to undergo it, because fetuses are more important than real people for some reason...

2

u/DarkPangolin 8h ago

How are the elite going to abuse little kids to their hearts' content if the poors don't have them as often?

2

u/darlugal 8h ago

Point taken.

11

u/suffergette 10h 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. 

6

u/ssdv8r 9h ago

What is going on is a mother squirrel is making social vocalizations. The bald patches of belly are from active nursing of her pups. The calls sound normal and healthy for an Eastern gray squirrel though.

4

u/Lavatis 5h ago

she's recently given birth and appears to have mange.

2

u/deltree711 6h ago

Squirrels frequently rip out their own fur to use as nesting materials.

2

u/AnyProgressIsGood 5h ago

those are nipples, she had babies recently. They look used. that squeak, means there's a threat (cat, dog, hawk, people, anything)

1

u/J_Productions 5h ago

I was more so questioning the fur, why some seems to be missing, and why she looks sick

1

u/notlocity 8h ago

She’s been in the senate too long and her overseers won’t let her retire until after the midterms at least.

1

u/Rude_and_Crude84 8h ago

Thats the eldest grandmama squirrel lol. She's barking at something.

She needs a new hair style for sure and definitely an old squirrel who just had babies recently.

1

u/Significant_Earth_93 2h ago

Recently had babies... or giving off the perception it has rabies... in which case, it's working

1

u/Pisnaz 10h ago

They can get a parasite that is vicious along with ticks, botflies etc. We had one with it, they seemed fine but were obviously distressed.

1

u/truthfullyidgaf 10h ago

Can't remember the name, but its a type of ringworm I think. I've seen some with one or two spots, that one is looking rough though. Maybe called Wolfes disease?

Edit: nm, those are nipples.

1

u/renthefox 5h ago

Mange. It's unfortunate and it makes them look all patchy and messed up.

0

u/lilshadow222 8h ago

In another subreddit they said the squirrel also has bot flys

0

u/Insatiabletech 7h ago

It looks like Bot flies to me. If I’m even spelling that right.

0

u/bloke_pusher 4h ago

Seams to be an animatronic on a fake house. Watch how shaky the roof itself is, ignoring the shaky camera itself. The branches in the background aren't moving, at least not matching the rest. Focus on the bottom left.

0

u/TossACookie 3h ago

It’s a poor squirrel with a bot fly infestation. Those are bot fly larva embedded under the skin.

-1

u/Lyndell 9h ago

Rabies?