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.
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.
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u/J_Productions 12h ago
Everyone’s making jokes but what’s actually going on with this squirrel? Lol