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These Squirrels Are Hunting and Eating Meat and Scientists Only Just Noticed
(www.zmescience.com)
this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
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An article from last year:
https://www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news/carnivorous-feeding-squirrels-documented-california
This had been known since the 50's in urban areas.
If you give a mammal little choice and they are desperate, they will eat anything. Same with predator fowl like Hawks and Pelicans. This is all well documented. Rabbits are also known to eat meat if necessary.
I’ve read, many years ago, how the common grey squirrel ( which is ubiquitous in the eastern USA) will hunt mice and eat only their brains, presumably for missing nutrients
I live in a port city crawling with rats and mice. They are so many that it's common to see freshly dead rodents on the bike trail after they were hit by e bikes.
What's crazy is how quickly they get scavenged by crows and squirrels. They dissappear almost immediately.
Cervids will gnaw on bones they find, I don't know why but that creeps me out, like a lot.
Edit: accidentally put corvid. Also, I've seen my neighbors Corvette gnawing on a raccoon corpse. It growled at me when I approached.
There are numerous videos on YouTube of deer eating songbirds.
The numbers suggest it’s not an act of desperation. Deer eat small birds. Pika eat meat. Apparently squirrels too.