Posted on 12/01/2005 11:50:10 AM PST by BJClinton
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."
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.
A Lazo man who called himself only Mikhalich said there had been "no pine cones at all" in the local forests this year.
"The little beasts are agitated because they have nothing to eat," he said.
As I raked up tons of acorns in my yard, I should have thought about the starving squirrels.
I've yelled at Gidget enough not to chase our squirrels here at home, that they scamper around fairly unfettered here. She's found other jobs, standing vigil against the world outside the compound :~D
Eek. This still makes me think of the moment in 2001 Space Odyssey where the apes went carnivorous--(after the visitation of the mysterious black rock)--
Vicious!
She's caught a few, I don't make a big production out of it or punish her about it... more like a "Ahem... LEAVE IT"... I feed the squirrels in a big way (A full coffee can of peanuts and sunflower seeds a day) so we have a lot of them. I don't think it's quite fair to attract them with food, and then let the dogs kill them at will :~D
Maybe Rocky Squirrel was the head of the league. Someone should tell Boris Badinov.
If that's true, then the forest is in serious trouble. If the vegetation dies, everything dies.
BTW for anyone interested the best squirrel-proof bird feeder I have ever found (after about 5 tries) is a thing called the Yankee Flipper. Purely mechanical (no shocks); simply rotates a circular landing rail when it feels squirrel-type weight.
I used the shock-type, so I don't have a problem with it, but ice tends to short them out.
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