Squirrel Defending It's Yard! [Backyard Bag Feeder Project]

[EastCoastDude99]

That famous squirrel sound around this area means theres a cat hiding under the Shrubs near the feeders.

[taburineagle]

@EastCoastDude99 - Yep - exactly, that's what happened!

[slowbubblecar]

I just had a little red squirrel going crazy in front of my house. It was living in the roof but I haven't gotten around to fixing it yet. Turns out a duck was sitting on the roof and he was mad that he couldn't get up there to get in.

[taburineagle]

@slowbubblecar - Hehe... squirrels usually call out when there's big danger like a cat or some other predator in the area that might come after them - it's funny to think of a duck trying to eat a squirrel! :)

[slowbubblecar]

@taburineagle - My house has walnut trees in the front yard so it naturally attracts squirrels.  This little red squirrel (slightly bigger than a gopher) seems to have claimed my yard in his mind. I closed the hole he was getting in the next day and haven't seen him since. I don't think the duck paid any attention to the squirrel regardless of the noise he was making, but the squirrel didn't like him up on the roof. :)

[sparkloweb]

It is just singing a song for you. :)

The tail grooming could be similar to humans who keep brushing their hand through their hair while freaking out.

[taburineagle]

@sparkloweb - That's possible, over-grooming to calm itself down...

[jelloofhell]

WHY WAS IT CHEWING IT'S TAIL

[taburineagle]

@jelloofhell - Grooming, not chewing... although kind of excessively.

[pinkfloydeffect]

They do this in my yard all the time when the cats approach them, and when they leave they seriously don't stop until you throw rocks at them it's wikid annoying.

[taburineagle]

@pinkfloydeffect - Yeah, they do that when there's "danger" in the yard... just because a cat's gone away doesn't mean they won't come back... of course it does get annoying after awhile! :)

[stangsaleens7]

i hear this alot when im passing by trees

[taburineagle]

@stangsaleens7 - That's because they see you as a threat :)

[lgx22]

i've done the research. this is a noble act. a alarm to those it cared about. usually a female squirrel would be doing that to alert its youngings. It gave away its position to sound off when predators is spotted. It is really a noble act

[taburineagle]

Very cool explanation, thanks!

[Racecars721]

when they do that i listen and look

often i see a hawk flying around or a cat in the yard

[taburineagle]

Yep! Exactly, it's a squirrel defensive call - they're warning other squirrels about a dangerous thing in their area.

[spearo92]

its a mating call not a call it makes cause its mad...they attract females like this...it also gives away their location when squirrel hunting........

[taburineagle]

I didn't mean "mad" like angry, I mean "mad" like crazy - it's vocalizing because something going on below is making it crazy, most likely a cat strolling through the yard. It's more of a defensive call, I doubt it's *solely* a mating call, but they could use it for that too...

Plus, I highly doubt they *want* to give their location away to squirrel hunters - :)

[spearo92]

i only know of it as a mating call. the distress call is different. they dont mean to give hunters their positions, they mean to give each other their position but we hear them and go to them for food

[taburineagle]

I know, it just read that way - :) It might be a mating call, but the squirrels around here do it *constantly* - so, if it is only a mating call, either it's squirrel mating season 365 days a year here, or we've got a *lot* of unusually horny squirrels here - :)

[Shrubbs]

I hear this all the time

[taburineagle]

So do I - :)

[paulhmusic]

i hear the squirrel outside my window every morning, i love it : )

[taburineagle]

Cool! I hear the squirrels quite often too, it's cool to see just what they're freaking out about!

[1girlcalledkill]

I have squirrel in my backyard tree that just will NOT go away. It wreaks havoc on my dogs who go nuts, and it constantly makes this awful sound like a baby cry. I hate the damned thing!!!

[kattherinee420]

lol, man it scared the shit outta me the first time i heard it ..

its so loud too lol, my landlord did something about it now tho

i can sleep once again :)

[taburineagle]

Well, that's cool - :) The first time I heard mice in the ceiling when I was a kid, I freaked out! Hehe... we don't have as many mice around any more (our cat takes care of some of them :)), but every now and then I hear one up there and just go "Eh..."

[hamstergeisha76]

A month ago I started to hear the squirrels in my neighborhood making this noise and it creeped me out as the sounds reminded me of the sounds that you hear a veloceraptor make in dinosaur shows and movies.

[taburineagle]

It does a little bit! Never thought of it like that before - :)

[hamstergeisha76]

I think whats going on where I live is the squirrels are instinctively saving nuts for the winter, and are defending their treasures from other squirrels and animals.

Well, at least I know raptor dinosaurs don't exist anymore. :)

[taburineagle]

That sounds like a good theory, especially during the colder months when they'd be a lot more defensive and aggressive towards anyone trying to steal their stash... like wandering velociraptors for instance - :)

[kattherinee420]

oh my fucking god dudes, i have fucking squrriels that live in my roof, i wake up to this sound, thats effed right up

[taburineagle]

Hehe... sorry to hear that... Not really "effed up", just a standard squirrel defensive call - I'm sure it sounds louder *in* the house (now *that*'s effed right up :)), but that's definitely a standard squirrel sound!

[backdraft999]

They do this as a warning sound to other squirrels. It's typically when they see something they consider a threat or something they are unsure of... Notice how he keeps looking down as if to see if the threat is still there... could be anything from another animal to a person... This animal is obviously accustomed to traffic and everything else around because they normally hide or lay flat on top of a big limb when they are barking like this (like he does at 5:50 in the video).

[taburineagle]

Yep! Exactly! They're accustomed to the traffic (traffic I wish wasn't there, but I can't do anything about that :)), but in this instance I think the squirrel was warning the others that a cat was in the area... I saw a stray cat waltz through the yard about 5 minutes before he started vocalizing, so I'm betting that's what this squirrel was going on about. The face rubbing (I'm guessing) is a dominance display over it's aggressor? Sort of like "it's MY tree, you get it?!" :)

[ALIENWarriorX]

FIIIRE!!!!!

[sixaxis66]

The obsessive grooming ticks are probably a rabies thing. Still funny to watch!

[Zenirixwolf]

Nope, it's just a type of expression they use. The squirel is perfectly healthy. x)

[Zenirixwolf]

*squirrel. My bad. ):

[sixaxis66]

That's interesting! Thank you for the info. I never see my local squirrels displaying or vocalizing like that. I have to admit I don't watch them as closely!

[Zenirixwolf]

I had the privledge of raising and releasing up to 5 squirrels; 3 of them being gray like the one shown. The other two were Fox squirrels. If you ever see two adult squirrels, and watch them closely, you can see them stamping their back feet violently and all over the place. It's quite amusing to watch.

[taburineagle]

I've seen them do that, they're trying to warn other squirrels that danger is in the area. The squirrel *looks* like he's going insane, but it's all a type of squirrel body language... :) In this video, there was a cat that strolled through a few minutes before the squirrel started vocalizing, he just wanted to make sure all of the other squirrels were aware of it! That's awesome that you've had the chance to work with squirrels, it's got to be great to rehab one from youth to the wild!

[fishnkid1923]

squirrels are smart

[RexNunc]

He's just doing the Squirrel Nightly News.

Something about partly cloudy, and a dog in the area...

[taburineagle]

Yes, yes! Exactly! :)

[vvillem9]

shave the tail and you got a rat

[taburineagle]

Yeah, so...? :)

[vvillem9]

would you chase a rat away when hes fucking around in your tree?

[taburineagle]

No - why should I? They have just as much a right to be there as a squirrel does. Now if it's in my *house*, I might think twice... :)

[24pointbuck]

he\she was just looking for another squirrel they do that all the time when im hunting and then i always see another 1 go over there. they do that all the time.

[taburineagle]

I know that he's not mad, that's just what I called the video... He's doing a defensive call to warn other squirrels in the area that something's not quite right. I think there was a cat in the yard just before this one started vocalizing, and that's why he's doing that. You probably hear it because they don't want you (or anyone else) in their territory...

[fishnkid1923]

yeah when i squirrel hunt they do that if they see me (or hide)

[AnimalLuverr]

this is normal for the squirels. It just means that this is his territory because I was once in my backyard and a couple feet away was a squirrel doing that at another squirrel across the yard and when it left, the one that was making that noise started to scent-mark my fence.

[taburineagle]

Yes! Exactly! It's just defending it's territory - although I did see a cat come by about 10 minutes *after* he did this, so he might have been warning the other squirrels, but for the same reason! You can see it scent-mark the branch a few times - STAY OFF MY BRANCH! :)

[zelph06]

It couldnt take a crap... ;)

[taburineagle]

HA!

[enjoythevoyage]

Maybe it was ill?I have never seen this before!

[taburineagle]

I don't think it was ill - I'm pretty sure that's just a defensive screech to warn other squirrels of danger - and (hopefully!) scare whatever it is away. I've seen them do this before, and I've heard them doing this many, many, MANY times... but I haven't had as good of a chance to catch them doing it on camera as this!

[maggothon]

Squirrels are so NUTS. Sitting on my patio one day reading esays, squirrel runs by on the fence and up the tree with something white filling its mouth; wtf??? Happens several times, finally I notice the neighbors house has been toilet papered the night before...squirrel cleaned the whole tree and padded its nest with toilet paper!!!

[taburineagle]

Nice! :) I've never seen any toilet-paper decored squirrels nests in this area, but I wouldn't put it past them to do that! I'm amazed they haven't used Feeder Project materials in their nests before... I've been doing my project for the last 9 years and I"ve never seen that happen once!

[taburineagle]

Hehe... I don't think it's either of those... it's just a warning cry to the other squirrels - the "pulling fur off the tail" thing though... I'm not sure what that's all about... maybe it's just obsessed with preening consantly?

[maggothon]

neurotic??? Why not most people are. Squirrels in my yard do this to my cats constantly and drive them "mad." However the cats have never been able to catch the squirrels, so the squirrels are pretty arrogant at this point, basically laughing at the cats I think.

[taburineagle]

"Nyah-nyah! Can't catch me!!" - Our cat would like to think he'd catch a squirrel, but I think they're too good for him - or at least that's what they'd like him to think! :) It might just be neurotic... it did just start doing that out of nowhere... but I think it's just nervous about something - it must just be an inexperienced scout squirrel... it might not know what's bad and what's not bad yet!

[chibudgielvr]

The squirrels around here don't screech as much as they do squeak...

[taburineagle]

Ours do that too - this is more of a rare occurance... usually when there's a hawk somewhere nearby, the squirrels will screech like this to warn the others that it's there. I've seen the grey cat in the yard during the day before, but I couldn't see anything towards the direction it kept barking at... Maybe it was just an extra large chipmunk it was screeching at... :) I'm guessing that it was just a rival squirrel though.

Have you seen my message? :)

[audiocoffee]

Lets see... this is mad? sorry bro.. hate to spoil the party, but I wished I'd filmed the squirrel diving into my water station for the birds yesterday... *class*

[taburineagle]

Nice! That would be cool to see... "Geronimo!!" :) I wasn't really saying "mad" as in crazy... it's just flippin' mad in general! :)

[WereCrow]

Ah screeching squirrel!? Never saw onedoing this..and then defenitly not all the time. Could it be some kind of ritual (becuase of the marking) like "That´s my tree, brother. No back off and run to mommy." XD But that´s really weird. But maybe it´s some kind related to that chipmunk you recently filmed. Ya know that one which suddenly stardet to stare at something for about 5 whole minutes.

[taburineagle]

Hehe... apparently there's this secret stash somewhere that I don't know about that makes the squirels anxious and the chipmunks just stare on... :) I'm not sure what the chipmunk's problem was, but squirrels usually do this when there's something in the area that they don't want there... maybe it's a rival squirrel gang with all of the marking... not really sure... :)