Yesterday, I had an interesting conversation with a woman. It began with her telling a friend and me how she’d had an encounter with a serial killer squirrel from the beyond. I must admit, when someone begins a story that way, it catches my full attention.
When questioned what she meant, the woman went on to tell how she’d noticed a loud commotion outside her window that morning. Looking out, she saw a bunch of agitated blue jays. They were dive-bombing a squirrel that was making its way down the trunk of a nearby tree. Something unusual about the squirrel caught the woman’s eye. So she leaned in to take a closer look.
Regretting her decision, she recoiled when she realized that the squirrel had a dead baby blue jay in its mouth.
Ew!
Looking around further, she noticed two other baby blue jays on the ground beneath the squirrel. Both those were still alive. The woman surmised they must have been knocked out of the nest during the attack.
How sad.
Looking up, she realized the nest was way too far up for her to replace the baby birds, and her heart ached for their plight.
So why did I share this story? Well, because ever since the woman mentioned that the squirrel had a baby bird in its mouth, I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around the fact that the squirrel was set to eat something other than nuts or fruit. My entire life, I’ve thought they were herbivores. And now, with this single story, that entire image is shot.
So, I had to settle my curiosity and find out if this—eating meat—was normal behavior for a squirrel. What I discovered is that they are primarily nut and fruit eaters, however, if faced with hunger, they will resort to eating meat and even eggs.
Well, who knew?
Anyhow, I was curious if anyone else had ever witnessed a squirrel faced with hunger, dining on meat or eggs?
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