From The Dodo we have a heartwarming story about the good that resides in some humans (not Republicans, though).
Thomas Paterson tells news agency Caters that he was out enjoying a day of whitewater boarding in Ottawa, Canada when he spotted the squirrel perched atop a rock protruding from the water midstream. Seeing no easy way for the little creature to cross the river on his own, Paterson stepped in to help.
The squirrel wasn’t eager for assistance at first, leaping into the water to get away from what he might have assumed was a predator, but he was quickly pulled under by the strong current. Fortunately, Paterson was there to pluck him from the water, after which the soaked squirrel seemed to understand his rescuer’s good intentions.
“Once he was on my board he realised what I was doing and just chilled and enjoyed the free ride,” says Paterson, who captured the entire rescue on his GoPro camera.
And of course we have this caveat (believe me, it’s necessary, as I was bitten by a baby squirrel about thirty years ago, and it was one of the most painful experiences I’ve ever had:
The Wildlife Rescue League advises caution when rescuing squirrels. When panicked, the animals are prone to bite, so in situations where they need to be picked up, it is best to wear gloves if possible.
h/t: Joyce
Thank you, kind human.
Or, “Damn human! Now I’m on the WRONG side of the river; how will I get BACK?”
Exactly my first thought!
I’m impressed he managed to see and grab a wet, squirming, submerged squirrel and land it on the board without harm to either the squirrel or his hands.
b&
A cute red squirrel too. They are extra feisty, those ones! Squirrels and chipmunks have very sharp teeth (the crack open nuts all the time) so if I have to catch them, I wear very thick gloves. I find chipmunks are so high strung they won’t usually bite but you can really scare them. Squirrels, especially gray ones, I wouldn’t trust at all unless it was a pet.
I hope that freeloading squirrel paid for his trip – who does that squirrel think he is, not pulling his weight in society!! 😀
Considering all the pageviews this is getting, the squirrel is probably due a royalty check by now….
b&
I like how the squirrel was taking the time to clean his fur. Maybe he knew he would be famous and wanted to look good.
His mom probably told him that he should always make sure he has clean underwear in case he’s ever in an accident and the ambulance people have to take his pants off….
b&
Ha ha yes that must be it!
I interpret that as a ‘displacement behavior’: the squirrel would normally flee but it can’t, so the stress induce a out of context stereotypic behavior (grooming).
Desnes
No, no royalties unless the squirrel pressed the ‘record’ button – in which case the GoPro owner would have no right to profit from the film in any way. That’s how it works for macaques, I assume squirrels have the same legal status.
A great rescue! I do have a question though.
How did the squirrel get on that rock in the first player?
My guess – he’d been whitewater boarding as well. At some point the little guy was separated from his board – also losing his helmet in the process – but fortunately managed to grab on to the rock as he was taken down stream.
Good advice for boarders (human, squirrel, and otherwise): Always, always go with a buddy!
That question occurred to me too.
I’d guess that there was a floating log involved at some point.
I forgot to mention that is funny how the guy taps his board to coax the squirrel on. We are so used to dealing with domesticated animals, that we forget, most animals don’t understand that. 🙂
Yeah, I noticed that, too. Wonder if he’d have responded to the universal animal kissy sound?
I was bitten years ago by a chipmunk. It was, shall we say, memorable. I would recommend heavy, leather gloves.
Not squirrels, but I have a baby skunk rescue story.
Last year, my husband and I were building a small observatory for our astronomy club. We dug holes for the cement posts to support the floor. But it had rained almost daily all for several months and the ground was soaked. Groundwater kept flowing into the holes faster than we could pump it out, which delayed pouring the cement posts.
We were only there on the weekends. One Friday night, at about 8 p.m., we arrived to drop off supplies and I checked the holes to see if they were drying out. In one of the holes were 2 baby skunks, swimming for their little lives. I tried to scoop them out with a board, then finally grabbed them by hand and lifted them out. One tried to spray me, but was just too tired and rolled over in exhaustion. Unfortunately, I found a third one that had drowned. The two shivering skunks crawled off a few feet, huddled together and groomed themselves. They were gone the next morning, hopefully back to their mama.
Obviously, the poor things had wandered by the previous night, fallen in and and had been swimming all day. I felt so badly for them. I had covered the holes with a board to keep people from falling in but never thought of the danger to small animals.
After that, I made sure that all the holes were completely covered so it couldn’t happen again.
A few years ago a couple baby chipmunks drowned in my water barrel. They somehow managed to squirm in there. I was so upset. I called everyone to tell them about it.
I took counter measures to stop that from happening again, including putting a heavy rock on the top so it can’t be lifted. No fatalities so far.
My grandmother had wooden water barrels, and after finding a drowned frog made sure they were well covered at all times.
My mother made sure the garden water barrels were straight and galvanized, and that birds had access easier water sources – no problems there.
What was annoying is I had covered the barrels but the chipmunks must’ve opened it. They can’t now because a heavy rock is on the lid.
For future reference, I think you can lay cement under water, no need to wait until the holes dry out. In fact the cement will be stronger if cured under water.
We knew that. But the water was literally pouring into the holes like a fountain. We were poring it into sonotubes and we had to remove enough water so the cement wouldn’t turn into a slurry that ran out the bottom. When it began to set up, the water didn’t matter.
But this (and Jerry’s video of the baby fox trapped in an old goalie net) made me aware that we humans create many dangers for animals.
For years I have been snipping the plastic strips the hold six packs of drinks together. I heard that young seagulls get them trapped around their necks, which tighten as they grown and they starve to death.
I may not be a big fan of seagulls but no animal should die that way.
sub
OK, nice gesture, human, and nice video, too. But how do you know which side of the river that little guy lived on? Maybe it’s sitting now far away from his squirrely family, pondering just how the hell he’s gonna get back home? (Although, to be fair, I have some squirrely family members and there have been many moments when I would have given almost anything to be transported to a new reality, so there’s that).
Ah yes, squirrel bites. A neighbor child ‘rescued’ a scurry of squirrel young that probably never needed her.
One of them survived, but sometime before release gave her the worst bite I’ve ever seen. At the time I felt it was suitable punishment.
Very cute!
The one squirrel story that I have is that some friends of my mother went away for a week and locked their house up, closing all internal doors, external windows, etc.
They weren’t aware that a squirrel had got into the master bedroom…. On their return home they open up the house and were confronted by a spectacularly angry (and very hungry) squirrel. Said squirrel was only ejected by throwing a duvet over it and ejecting it out of the window as it attacked anyone going near it.
Squirrel was unharmed, which was more that could be said about the room in which it was trapped!
Other than that I’ve lived next to a park and often had squirrels come to visit us in the living room.
My dad has a heated garage, separate from the house. He has a fish tank in there. He couldn’t figure out why the fish tank water seemed to be going down more and more each day. It turned out there was a squirrel trapped in there for days. The squirrel must’ve been complete quiet & still when my dad was in there.