Squirrels kill and eat dog in Russia

Russian squirrel pack 'kills dog'

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.

............

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.

Mikhail Tiyunov, a scientist in the region, said it was the first he had ever heard of such an attack.

While squirrels without sources of protein might attack birds' nests, he said, the idea of them chewing at a dog to death was "absurd".

"If it really happened, things must be pretty bad in our forests," he added.

Komosmolskaya Pravda notes that in a previous incident this autumn chipmunks terrorised cats in a part of the territory.

........

Source

Wow, pretty crazy story. Never heard of Squirrels attacking and then eating a dog. Hope they don't start trying to eat people .

[edit on 1-12-2005 by andpau66]

There was a thread posted a little while ago about squirrels on crack, aparently this is happing alot in New York City in and around the parks as the squirrels while digging for food are finding stashes of crack coc aine hidden by users. Maybe some areas of Russia are having this problem. They can get quite aggressive and become addicted, sadly alot of them die from overdose. This eventually could pose a serious problem if it were to get out of hand, squirrels are normally passive and non-aggressive, it would be awful to have our species of these cute little rodents drastically altered by this drug. Wouldn't also their babies be born addicted to crack, thereby creating a new wave of crack addicted squirrels. When I first heard about this I almost laughed but I don't find it funny at all just sad, I kind a like the little critters just the way they are.