# Jeez criminy. Do squirrels get rabies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 19, 2007, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-criminy-do-squirrels-get-rabies/404744 "2007-05-19T17:48:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-criminy-do-squirrels-get-rabies/404744/21 "2007-05-20T14:00:42Z")
The first thing I did, before posting this thread even, was read the Wikipedia articles on squirrels and on rabies, from which I learned that while they can carry rabies, they aren’t a known vector to humans. So I know I didn’t get anything from it. Having said that, I still wish I knew what the HECK was wrong with it. I’m actually starting to remember that about a decade ago, there was a big deal with Mad Squirrel Disease–apparently a prion disease in squirrels that people in Kentucky were contracting by… um… eating squirrel brains. Mad squirrel, anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-criminy-do-squirrels-get-rabies/404744/22 "2007-05-20T15:57:59Z")
[QUOTE=Sattua] The first thing I did, before posting this thread even, was read the Wikipedia articles on squirrels and on rabies, from which I learned that while they can carry rabies, they aren’t a known vector to humans. So I know I didn’t get anything from it. [/QUOTE] Perhaps your OP title is what sidetracked the thread into a discussion of tree rats and rabies… ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2007, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-criminy-do-squirrels-get-rabies/404744/23 "2007-05-20T18:31:36Z")
[QUOTE=Sattua] Having said that, I still wish I knew what the HECK was wrong with it. [/QUOTE] I answered this upstream: “Dudes feed squirrels, thus squirrels lose their fear of humans.” Around here the squirrels are so well fed they have become agressive in their earch fr people-food, and some attacks have occurred. It is a political issue- whether or not to trap and kill the squirrels. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-criminy-do-squirrels-get-rabies/404744/24 "2007-05-21T01:35:40Z")
From the [CDC](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/ques&ans/q&a.htm#What%20is%20the%20risk%20of%20rabies%20from%20squirrels,%20mice,%20rats,%20and%20other%20rodents) and [this](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/natural_history/nathist.htm), any warm blooded animal can get rabies. As for the squirrel’s behavior, I think it was probably one of them Rogue Squirrels. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-criminy-do-squirrels-get-rabies/404744/25 "2007-05-21T04:12:16Z")
[QUOTE=Martin Hyde] If a rat or mouse gets rabies, it’s still limited by the fact that they can’t fly, meaning even if they’re in the home, they’re unlikely to be able to bite you if you’re sleeping in a bed raised from the ground. Bats on the other hand, when they spread rabies, often do so when they bite someone in their sleep. The person may never even see the bat or realize they’ve been bitten. This ability to fly is probably why not every bat who is attacked by a rabid animal dies, even if wounded, as long as they can still fly away, they can flee most predators. [/QUOTE] That’s worth noting. Not infrequently, people who contract rabies can recall seeing bats or having bats in their chimney or attic or whatever, but don’t recall being bitten by a bat, or sometimes don’t think they ever even came into contact with a bat. And since rabies is 100% fatal once the symptoms show up, well, that’s pretty scary. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-criminy-do-squirrels-get-rabies/404744/26 "2007-05-21T12:37:38Z")
[QUOTE=chorpler] And since rabies is 100% fatal once the symptoms show up, well, that’s pretty scary. [/QUOTE] Not quite 100% fatal - there’ve been a handful of human survivors of clinical rabies, almost all of them having received anti-rabies prophylaxis before or after exposure. [This case](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5350a1.htm) is the rarest of the rare. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-criminy-do-squirrels-get-rabies/404744/27 "2007-05-21T14:57:16Z")
[QUOTE=Jackmannii] Not quite 100% fatal - there’ve been a handful of human survivors of clinical rabies, almost all of them having received anti-rabies prophylaxis before or after exposure. [This case](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5350a1.htm) is the rarest of the rare. [/QUOTE] Well … I was thinking of mentioning the six survivors, but I don’t think they really count. 5 of them had either been vaccinated beforehand or were vaccinated after (they’re described as having suffered from “vaccine failure”), and in any case 4 of the 5 suffered from pretty severe brain damage. The recent (December 2004) case of Jeanna Giese in Wisconsin, the case you link to above, is quite extraordinary; she not only survived without any administration of the vaccine (apparently thanks to some antiviral drugs and an induced coma) but she came through it well enough to be back in school and keeping up with her classmates. Unfortunately, at least 6 similar efforts to save other rabies patients since then have failed. So if somebody starts displaying symptoms of rabies, they are very nearly certainly going to die, it seems. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-criminy-do-squirrels-get-rabies/404744/28 "2007-05-21T15:26:33Z")
[QUOTE=Sattua] He barely looked like a squirrel, really. [/QUOTE] Maybe it was a crocodile. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-criminy-do-squirrels-get-rabies/404744/29 "2007-05-21T15:29:04Z")
Maybe it was [this](http://illwillpress.com/) little guy? ---
**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-criminy-do-squirrels-get-rabies/404744/30 "2007-05-21T15:49:14Z")
I’ve been monitoring rather than contributing, since the discussion is quite correct and my comments are superfluous. Except– Bats (and raccoons and skunks) can be asymptomatic carriers of rabies. This means that they can carry and transmit the disease without becoming ill themselves. If they don’t become ill, they don’t die, and they aren’t removed from the population. Such is not the case with other mammals including squirrels. Also, there are several instances in the literature of people contracting rabies from bats without a bite or a scratch. (Sorry, I don’t have time to search for a cite now. If it becomes an issue, I’ll do so or withdraw this statement.) As I recall, these are people who claimed to never have handled a bat, but merely to have “found one behind the curtains in the bedroom”. If such non-contact transmissions from bats do indeed occur, this amplifies the need for caution around them. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-criminy-do-squirrels-get-rabies/404744/31 "2007-05-21T21:48:28Z")
[QUOTE=Wile E] As for the squirrel’s behavior, I think it was probably one of them Rogue Squirrels. [/QUOTE] OOOH! Video Game Franchise, there. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-criminy-do-squirrels-get-rabies/404744/32 "2007-05-21T23:29:55Z")
[QUOTE=Martin Hyde] For a few reasons. First, bats have an extremely low rate of rabies, less than 0.5% of bats in the wild. [/QUOTE] Is this right? one bat in 200 has rabies? ---
**Author:** ![intention](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e95f7d/32.png) [@intention](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/intention)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2007, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-criminy-do-squirrels-get-rabies/404744/33 "2007-05-22T08:36:19Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] Not quite. Rabies is all but unknown in Possums. > **[Opossum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didelphimorphia)** > > See text Opossums (/əˈpɒsəmz/) are members of the marsupial order Didelphimorphia (/daɪˌdɛlfɪˈmɔːrfiə/) endemic to the Americas. The largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere, it comprises 126 species in 18 genera. Opossums originated in South America and entered North America in the Great American Interchange following the connection of North and South America in the late Cenozoic. The Virginia opossum is the only species found in the United States and Canada. It is often simply ref... [/QUOTE] Well … yes, quite. According to the citation that Wikipedia refers to (bolding mine): > [@](#): > > Question: Do opossums carry rabies? > > Answer: **Any mammal can get rabies**. However, the chance of rabies in an opossum is EXTREMELY RARE. This may have something to do with the opossum’s low body temperature (94-97º F) making it difficult for the virus to survive in an opossum’s body. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeez-criminy-do-squirrels-get-rabies/404744.md?page=1)