I live in Lincoln Park in Chicago and on my way home yesterday afternoon, I saw two of the biggest, fattest squirrels I’ve ever seen. OK I’m willing to admit, they could be fluffy and not fat, but still they looked huge.
Then I looked around and all the squirrels seem to be fatter than I ever remember.
Is this a sign of a bad winter to come? Or is it more that we had a nice summer and the squirrels are now getting the benefits of a bumper crop of food?
What about your area? Anyone else notice this? Or ever notice something like it?
The older squirrels around here are pretty hefty. The younger ones are more athletic.
I would hypothesise that they had a bumper crop of food this year, because it is a very serious offense here to feed the animals (very hefty fine) and I’ve never seen anyone feed them or seen any food on the ground. The “Gestapo rules enforcers” are very aggressive here and it seems that not much gets past them.
But it certainly is possible that someone is feeding them and not getting caught.
we have fat squirrels too, even the usually scrawny black ones are filled out. We have had a bumper crop of acorns this fall, or our squirrels aren’t blind!
They are fat because they are lazy, sitting on the couch all day eating pizza and bonbons and drinking fruity drinks flavored with high-fructose corn syrup.
Really? they raise babies through winter? guess so, that would explain the fat black squirrel I saw “eating” oak leaves - he/she took it up the tree and there I noticed a big ass “nest” -
The ones in our yard are also fat as toads even compared to most years, but the oak trees around here dropped more acorns than I’ve seen in ages, so I’m assuming that’s it.
One thing I’ve noticed every fall when I go back to Cleveland for a week: Ohio squirrels are almost always bigger, fatter and glossier than our central NC squirrels. Don’t know if it’s the food or the weather or what, but Ohio squirrels could probably kick NC squirrel ass with one paw tied their backs.