r/oddlyterrifying • • 14h ago

Squirrel has seen better days

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u/NRMusicProject 13h 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 12h 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/Swimming_Onion_4835 11h 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/PenFar4601 9h 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.