Squirrel encounter

[Cobblestones]

Why the hell do they run right in front of you?

I've pondered this for what must be many cumulative hours while riding.

It seems so counter-intuitive that an animal whose instinct makes in run right in front of a threat moving at high speed should still be alive.

My only guess is that they dart in the direction that a predator would not expect them to dart in, i.e., right the hell in front of it. Sort of like a gazelle zig-zagging it throws off the chase.

Except of course cyclists are not chasing them. Instead of lunging for where they were, only to be caught off guard when they move to where we were going, we go where we were going and so do they.

That is my theory of squirrels.

-Road Hazard, Ph. D.

The thing with squirrels is that they don't like running off the road. It's pretty obvious when you think about it. They can't see far in the grass. Often they sprint toward one side of the road, then they get spooked out by something in the grass and then they turn around running toward the other side of the road (which might be toward you). When you watch squirrels, you often see them pause a few inches before the edge of the road. They carefully observe the grass before they move into it. I've only run over one squirrel so far.

 

[bridgeman]

I hit one with my left shoe during a slight downhill and very high speed sprint. The result was a mist of red, and when the group rejoined, I was heckeled with "Squirrel keller"!

 

[cyclopeon]

Ah-ha, this explains why bladed spokes are now in vogue! Slice and dice, or maybe slice and slice. I just don't understand why both edges are dull...

 

[TopCarbon]

why do you guys even ponder why a squirrel would do this, have you seen the size of their head? The brain has to be a size of a pea.

 

[krebs303]

cowards killing small furries.
man up and try running over one of these!

 

[Anonymous]

Try this

cowards killing small furries.
man up and try running over one of these!

hey krebs, one of my employees says her aunt makes a pretty good squirrel pie, tastes like chicken. Maybe you should work on a squirrel taco / burrito kind of thing. Post some pics, before and after?

 

[krebs303]

hey krebs, one of my employees says her aunt makes a pretty good squirrel pie, tastes like chicken. Maybe you should work on a squirrel taco / burrito kind of thing. Post some pics, before and after?

Maybe a nice Brunswick Stew

 

[VeloEcosse]

So, how many squirrel decals do you have on your downtube

Too funny....á la Cavendish.

 

[9000ft]

cowards killing small furries.
man up and try running over one of these!

Moose are all over the place here where I live. It's mostly an issue on Mountain biking trails. I give them plenty of room thank you very much. As Dirty Harry said, "a man has to know his limitations".

 

[Marva32]

OMG!

Geese are my second most hated cycling enemy. The ones we have here are black and gray, they camouflage very well with the road, especially if you have polarized lenses, seems to work in the geeses' camo favor.

If they are waddling at least you can see them, but the cheeky ones who just stand there are like surprise obstacles that materialize out of no where.

We have a small flock of geese that live near our building almost all year 'round. For some reason they try to attack me every time I ride near them. Of course, they do the same with the cars.

 

[hiero2]

hey krebs, one of my employees says her aunt makes a pretty good squirrel pie, tastes like chicken. Maybe you should work on a squirrel taco / burrito kind of thing. Post some pics, before and after?

Nah, not like chicken. Squirrels are red meat - more like rabbit. I made squirrel gumbo one time for a potluck - told everybody what it was - didn't want anybody freaked out. It was very good, even if I do say so myself.

One guy missed the "squirrel" part when he was told it was squirrel gumbo - he just heard "gumbo" - he dug in, enjoyed the heck out of it, then nearly lost it when somebody told him it was squirrel. We had fun with that for months.

Squirrels are tough little xxxxx - hard to kill. That broken fork - wow.

Having watched dogs trying to catch squirrels for many years - I don't think they are slow. I think they aren't sure that the oncoming vehicle is a threat. Cars come towards them fast enough so that they are like at raptor speed - the squirrels pretty much get that. I wonder if the bikes are slow enough that the squirrels get "faked out"? We're not headed straight towards them = not a positive threat? Instinct doesn't deal with bicycle speeds for raptor type approaches?

 

[redtreviso]

""Cars come towards them fast enough so that they are like at raptor speed - the squirrels pretty much get that. I wonder if the bikes are slow enough that the squirrels get "faked out"? We're not headed straight towards them = not a positive threat? Instinct doesn't deal with bicycle speeds for raptor type approaches?""

As I said earlier I think it is a raptor thing.. Running away from a hawk on final approach would play into the hawk hands(talons)..but running towards and behind it could cause an overshoot..The height of a cyclist would alert a squirrel more like a bird than a 4 footed predator.

 

[VeloEcosse]

Dog

Was chased by a dog once. Poor little fella decided that my back wheel was fair game for a full on tackle. Spokes must have hurth his teeth a bit.

I am a big dog lover so couldn't be too mad for too long even though he made me crash.

When I went to pick my bike back up he wizzed on it. Hows that for nonchalant territoriality?

 

[bridgeman]

We ride through country roads where quite a number of equestrians ride as well, so there have been lots of encounters, and some not so positive.

One scary incident was when we came upon 2 people on horses and the group spooked one of them. The trail was on the side of the road and the one horse freaked and turn into the road and entered the group mid pack at full gallop. The horse was actually gaining on the front group and you could see all these bike riders looking back and frantically pedal to try get away, the whole time the person on the horse clearly has lost control and screaming.

Finally the guy gets the horse under control and pulls off to the side of the road and then he begins screaming at the back half of the group. This one ended ok, but some other occurrences did not.

 

[kelvedon wonder]

Ours is quite a 'horsey' area, and I'm always very wary of passing them. It doesn't take much to spook a horse so that it lashes out with its hooves. I can live with a dent in my car door, but don't fancy an iron shoe making contact with my shins.

There are a lot of game birds around as well, and I was nearly taken out on a fairly wild descent of a big (for Essex) hill by a pheasant that I missed by about an inch. They're like squirrels as well -you just can't tell what direction they are likely to run in.

Scariest encounter was definitely the enormous muntjac that just missed my back wheel

 

[Anonymous]

While we're on the subject of horses

Ours is quite a 'horsey' area, and I'm always very wary of passing them. It doesn't take much to spook a horse so that it lashes out with its hooves. I can live with a dent in my car door, but don't fancy an iron shoe making contact with my shins.k:

I have had occasion to pass Amish buggies, both overtaking and coming at me from the opposite direction. The "road horses" seem to deal with bikes OK, maybe becaause of more experience. Draft or "field" horses are another matter. Once a team pulling a big wooden contraption approached on the other side of the road. When they saw me they freaked and it was all the teenage driver could do to keep from being pulled into a field. The second time I saw a different team coming I decided to pull off onto the sholder and wait for the draft horses to pass. Same result, they freaked out and pulled the kid driver into the ditch. So watch out for draft horses.

 

[Megalodon]

I guess horses confuse cyclists for hawks too.

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe a nice Brunswick Stew

or en papillote, done in ths stype of Parisian Roof Rabbit! Non! a chouxcroute garnie avex écureuil.