Red Squirrel Eating A Grey Squirrel Carcass ...

Today, I saw the most bizarre thing.

But first, a backgrounder: here in Southern Ontario, there are two types of day time squirrels: the larger grey squirrel, and the tiny red squirrel. What the latter lacks in size, he makes for it by being very aggressive towards the larger greys, often chasing them off from several backyards at a time. The reds also object to humans being present by chattering in a bird like manner.

So what happened today?

On my backyard fence, there was a little red squirrel, hauling the carcass of a grey squirrel and gnawing on it. It would fall down, and he would haul it up on the fence again and continue to munch on it.

The grey squirrel carcass looked like it was flattened somewhat, so not freshly killed.

Unfortunately, he was very fidgety, and by the time I had the camera ready, he was no longer visible.

This sort of behaviour is not unique. We often think of squirrels and hares are purely herbivorous. But, it has been observed that snow shoe hares eating meat.