A question about squirrels.

How do squirrels know that falling or jumping from a great height and hitting the ground will hurt or kill them?

It would seem like each squirrel would have to go through an experience where they jumped or fell from a taller height than normal, got hurt, and learned the lesson...but I just can't imagine that happening to all of them for some reason.

It would seem like, without a cognitive awareness of gravity and impact, a squirrel being chased through the trees would decide, in its escape, to leap, instead of from one branch to another nearby, from the branches high above to the ground 80 feet below in its quest to get away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7-TtjltFWo

This is good...the title is "Squirrel jump series" and the caption for the video is "Various squirrel jumps."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyZkQkoEypY&feature=related

Oh my God.

This has nothing to do with your question, so my apologies.

There is this nursery that my girlfriend and I go to regularly, and in the one section, they have a demo constantly playing for this bird feeder that keeps squirrels away. It just doesn't allow them to get a foothold on the surface and spins them around. I always get completely absorbed in the demo, as it has people mimicking the voices of squirrels (of course, the human voices are pitched up) and I stand there laughing like I am slow. Any how, the demo is filled with videos like this..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NocRG3r2zBw&feature=fvw

that is all.

This is called an instinct.

It's been developed through the years.

beth ditto ate a squirrel

  On 5/2/2010 at 2:52 PM, thanks robert moses said:

This has nothing to do with your question, so my apologies.

There is this nursery that my girlfriend and I go to regularly, and in the one section, they have a demo constantly playing for this bird feeder that keeps squirrels away. It just doesn't allow them to get a foothold on the surface and spins them around. I always get completely absorbed in the demo, as it has people mimicking the voices of squirrels (of course, the human voices are pitched up) and I stand there laughing like I am slow. Any how, the demo is filled with videos like this..

 

i've seen a bodged-up one (with a dustbin lid with a hole in the middle) in action. hilarious. squrrels can get up it but it takes them dozens of tries

I once saw a squirrel fall out of a tree and somehow it lived.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/may/11/recipes.foodanddrink

"It tastes sweet, like a cross between lamb and duck"

sounds delicious. imagine squirrel-on-a-stick.

Once a squirrel fell into my pool and got sucked up by the pool sweep

  On 5/2/2010 at 3:07 PM, 277: 930-933 said:

This is called an instinct.

It's been developed through the years.

but instinct is just a word. You have to describe what it is.

  On 5/2/2010 at 10:00 PM, Rambo said:

  On 5/2/2010 at 3:07 PM, 277: 930-933 said:

This is called an instinct.

It's been developed through the years.

 

but instinct is just a word. You have to describe what it is.

instinct.

reminds me of a squirrel that used to hang around my mom's house. it obviously had some sort of mental problem because it would try and jump through the fence and end up running straight into the board. it was also quite erratic but aren't most squirrels anyway?