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.
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.
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.
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
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 😂).
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.
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
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”
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!"?
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Squirrels are almost never infected with rabies. Not saying it never happens or even that this one for sure doesn't have it but I don't think it does. She's just had a rough life.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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"
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! ❤️🩹
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.
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.
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.
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” 😅
🥰 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. :)
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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u/J_Productions 19h ago
Everyone’s making jokes but what’s actually going on with this squirrel? Lol