Killer Squirrels?

This sounds like it came straight from a horror film.

Russian squirrel pack 'kills dog'

Squirrels have bitten to death a stray dog which was barking at them in a Russian park, local media report.
Passers-by were reportedly too late to stop the attack by the black squirrels in a village in the far east, which reportedly lasted about a minute.

They are said to have scampered off at the sight of humans, some carrying pieces of flesh.

A pine cone shortage may have led the squirrels to seek other food sources, although scientists are sceptical.

The attack was reported in parkland in the centre of Lazo, a village in the Maritime Territory, and was witnessed by three local people.

A "big" stray dog was nosing about the trees and barking at squirrels hiding in branches overhead when a number of them suddenly descended and attacked, reports say.

"They literally gutted the dog," local journalist Anastasia Trubitsina told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

"When they saw the men, they scattered in different directions, taking pieces of their kill away with them."

more...

I'm a little surprised to see this story being reported by the BBC. There are a few facts that don't sound quite right. For example, it's hard to believe that lack of food could drive squirrels to attack a dog...and in a pack too...

While I'm skeptical about it, I thought I'd throw it out on the board nonetheless.

If the story is true, then the whole thing is quite disturbing.


[edit on 1-12-2005 by loam]

Well, I have heard stories about squirrels attacking various animals and even people, though any injuries were very minor. But a pack of squirrels killing a large dog and tearing off pieces of its flesh all in less than a minute seems a little bit too far fetched to me. And due to a pine cone shortage no less? Seems it doesn't take much to rile up those cute and spunky little fellas. I would question the validity of that story, but if it is true, well, !

Okay, true story here.

When we lived in Dallas we had squirrels living in the big trees in our backyard out the wazoo. We had an akita that was mainly a house dog, but would go out for spells. She loved to try to catch a squirrel. One day she caught one. And the squirrel went to screaming - I hear this and walk to the sliding door and see what's going on.

Every squirrel in the backyard converged on the closest tree to the dog and started moving as one. It was like a scene out of an attack of the squirrels movie or something. Almost like CG...it was surreal. So they start advancing on the dog and doing their little barking thingy at her. She would turn, let go of the squirrel and start toward them and they would slightly all back back up the tree trunk (but not run away). And the poor little wounded squirrel would start trying to get away. The dog would turn and grab it and the squirrels would advance closer. This happened like three or four times until finally I couldn't stand it anymore. Not only was the squirrel screaming very disturbing, but the reaction of all the other squirrels was upsetting so I went out and rescued the little squirrel.

I don't know if it ended up living through it or not, because it was pretty injured, but to watch the immediate pack-attack reaction of all the squirrels against this big dog was awesome!

Indy and I were just discussing this article I think the most disturbing part of this is that the man states there are no cones produced in that forest this year. So what effects cone production in pines?

Talk about some twisted #! The squirrels in my 'hood do not move in packs and are way too fat to attack anything (we had a bumper crop of nuts and stuff this year, my parents still have 2 bags full they cleared out of the street in front of their house)

Valhal I have a feeling that if you had not stepped in your Akita would have massacred those insane squirrels. What could drive them though...

[edit on 2-12-2005 by sardion2000]

Originally posted by Valhall
Indy and I were just discussing this article I think the most disturbing part of this is that the man states there are no cones produced in that forest this year. So what effects cone production in pines?

I'm not an expert on this, but my sister who's next door neighbor is a florist had told me that they have a problem getting pine cones for the holiday wreaths a lot of years (she lives in New England). The explanation given was that the trees do not actually produce cones every year and I think the ones that are preferable for holiday wreaths only produce every third year.

The whole thing came up over a visit from her on a year when the trees were dropping tons of them, but I have to say, it does seem that these trees around me are on a 3 year cycle. This year they are appearing all over the lawn and shrubs (and not from trees on my own property), but I hadn't noticed them the last year or two. (I live in Florida)

And by the way, Reikuro told a story a few times about harrassing a squirrel with a friend and finding themselves being pursued aggressively afterwards by a bunch of them. I didn't give it much thought at the time, as it sounded silly, but now, I wonder how serious this was.

[edit on 12/2/2005 by Relentless]

"Squirrelly wrath" in action!

I guess Foamy had it right.

(click on "squirrel songs"(bottom of 3rd row), for those who don't know)
www.illwillpress.com...

Wow, I've never heard of a "pack mentality" in squirrels, kinda spooky.

To think, they took on a carnivorious predator (dog) as a pack of herbivores?

Now, do ya think they might develop a "taste for blood", maybe a rogue pack of omnivorious squirrels?

I gotta admit, the thought kinda creeps me out.

This kinda moves them from the "cute bushy-tailed nut-nibblers" category, to the "New York baby-eating sewer rats" realm.


[edit on 12/2/05 by redmage]

On another note, maybe CPR was on to something when he founded "The Anti-Squirrel Patrol". Might be time for a little revival of that.

Creepy! I always knew squirrels were just rats with cute tails...

Aren't they the same ones that reported on people coming back to life because of a bacteria that reanimated people? I don't trust them. Seems they are prone to prank-pulling.

A dog would stand there and allow that to happen? No, I feel certain he'd exit, stage left, even.

[edit on 2-12-2005 by Thomas Crowne]

Now, do ya think they might develop a "taste for blood", maybe a rogue pack of omnivorious squirrels?

I think it's a survival mechanism. If there were a vast shortage of traditional food some species of squirrels might develop a "taste for blood" and become predators or omnivorious squirrels. I know when food is scarce the squirrels sometimes digs for grubs in my parents backyard(i saw em do it too I thought it was mostly Raccoons, skunks and birds that did that before I saw it with my own eyes, I still never heard of them attacking a huge animal before this)

Thomas, It's not April 1st

[edit on 2-12-2005 by sardion2000]

Originally posted by Thomas Crowne

A dog would stand there and allow that to happen? No, I feel certain he'd exit, stage left, even.

[edit on 2-12-2005 by Thomas Crowne]

Who said anything about him standing still? Have you ever seen a squirrel's teeth!

It's kind of a funny kodak moment imagining a big dog with 20 black squirrels hanging off him running in a circle yelping.

well, in a twisted way it is anyway.

This has also been reported no the BBC website. They're still unsure as to whether this is true or not.

news.bbc.co.uk...

Turns out these little critters eat all kinds of things when they get hungry enough, but they usually limit it to small animals such as birds or whatever's in their nests.

Originally posted by sardion2000
I think it's a survival mechanism. If there were a vast shortage of traditional food some species of squirrels might develop a "taste for blood" and become predators or omnivorious squirrels.

I'm not so sure this has anything to do with an issue of food. Both the article and Val's story indicate these incidents occured as a defense mechanism.

A "big" stray dog was nosing about the trees and barking at squirrels hiding in branches overhead when a number of them suddenly descended and attacked, reports say.

I had a pet squirrel for a while. Squirrels are very interesting. My little dude had his mommy get ran over and my older brother found the nest of babies. So I took the little dude in and kept him in a dog kennel and fed him through an eye dropper. But I learned that a male squirrel cannot be domesticated (female squirrels can). The minute the male squirrel hits puberty they turn very very aggressive. Mean little s---s.

But I have an interesting story on this. I had the little dude while I was in college and one weekend I came down to visit my parents and brought my little squirrel-baby with me in his kennel. That night, in the middle of the night, I'm woke up by the sound of a human baby crying. It sounded like some one had left a baby on my parents' doorstep! So I'm wandering around looking out the windows and checking the porch and following the sound and its my little squirrel-baby! My mom had set the kennel to where when the central air-conditioning kicked on the vent was blowing right in the metal grate door of the kennel and the little dude was cold! And he was hanging on the metal grate just crying like a little baby!

I moved the kennel and he went right to sleep.

[edit on 12-2-2005 by Valhall]

Have I ever sen a squirrel's teeth? Madam, you are talking to a dead-aim squirrel hunter from way back. Got bit by one of the little buggers while putting him in the game bag; he wasn't nearly as dead as I thought he was. I know their teeth. I still find this hard to swallow.

As far as what they will eat, they are not restricted to nuts and seeds; for example, they will consume the baby squirrels of neighboring nests. Thinning the population, I guess.

Originally posted by Thomas Crowne
Have I ever sen a squirrel's teeth? Madam, you are talking to a dead-aim squirrel hunter from way back. Got bit by one of the little buggers while putting him in the game bag; he wasn't nearly as dead as I thought he was. I know their teeth. I still find this hard to swallow.

Oh, okay, then you're well aware of the last body part to be skinned when skinning one, right? lol

I bet you've got a real unique toothpick, too.

first we have crack addicted squirrels(politics.abovetopsecret.com...) and now they moved on to murder?

tempermental animals that don't like party tricks - www.atomicbird.com...

Today I was making the most of the warm weather by taking a juggle break outside. A passing squirrel stopped and stared, as if to say, what the hell is that guy doing? After several minutes he climed a tree, worked his way to the branch nearest me, and started barking. I don't know what it was, but he was not happy with me. A few minutes of this and he attracted the attention of another squirrel-- who joined him in barking at me.

perhaps these squirrels were upset with this:



or perhaps the rampant drug use and murderous streak that we are now finding in squirrels is simply a byproduct of years of squirrel slave labor

Originally posted by redmage
This kinda moves them from the "cute bushy-tailed nut-nibblers" category, to the "New York baby-eating sewer rats" realm.

LOL!

The term "land piranha" comes to mind and seems appropriate.

I'll never look at squirrels the same way again!

True story here.

My cat, we'll call her "PICARD" for the sake of anonymity for the feline.

She has appeared in several newpspaper ads and website features, so she likes her privacy.

Anyway, Picard was quite young and decided she would like to climb a tree, which she ended up being very good at. The thing she was not good at was getting out of said tree.

After an hour a trying to coax the cat down, I decided to bring in back up and rang my personal assistant Mr. Beezer on the tele.

When Beezer arrived he realized that Picard was precariously close to a nesting tree-rat (squirrel).

Beezer got the ladder and went after picard, only to be harrassed by 3 little and one full grown squirrels.

They were screaming and chattering the entire time Beezer was near them.

The large one even came out of the nest and "brushed" up against Beezer's head a couple of times as it swung from a branch just above the picard zone.

Beezer grabbed picard and quickly made his way down the ladder.

No harm came to Picard, Beezer or the squirrels.

But I shudder to think what would have happened if he would have attempted that rescue later in the day, when the shadows are long, and no one could bare witness to the crimes Levied by the rodents.

- One Man Short ®



[edit on 2-12-2005 by One Man Short of Manhood]