Squirrel Gymnastics

So like most university campuses the U of M seems to be teaming with furry little critters, and no I'm not talking about the undergrads...for the most part they seem to be too young to even grow passable beards. What I'm talking about are the squirrels and rabbits that are all over the campus. Though now that I think of it I haven't seen a rabbit in a while, but they are pretty small, they may have been pushed around by the squirrels...of they just don't want to be chased around by drunk frat boys.

But back to the squirrels. If you've ever taken the time to watch any squirrels you know that they are generally active creatures. Most of the time they are running around looking for food, or chasing each other around the base of a tree. Hell there was even one time, while on an early morning walk up Mont Royal in Montreal, I was stalked by about 20+ squirrels thinking that I was bringing food. Trust me, I was damn close to breaking out into a full sprint. I mean sure I could probably hold my own against a few squirrels. But having seen how fast those fuzzy buggers can run up and down a tree I began to realize that my build would simply facilitate their ability to do the same to me. So yeah, I will admit to having been scared by squirrels, and after what I saw today, I may have had some reason.

You see, I think I actually stumbled upon a squirrel training program. While walking across campus I noticed something odd, three squirrels on a low limb of a tree, just sitting there. Well not exactly, two of them were sitting there, the other one was...well he was going what could only be described as gymnastics.

The squirrel was hanging from the low limb of the tree. Now that's a first for me to begin with, I don't think I had ever seen a squirrel hang, I've seen them make suicidal leaps of faith, but never just hang there...upside-down. Seriously, this squirrel was hanging from his hind legs with his face an inch or so off the ground. But what really got me was that it looked like he was doing ab crunches! I swear, when I saw him he was in the middle of a crunch, and he was surprisingly flexible, he got his nose right to his hind feet. But I'm sure that he saw me, because as soon as the crunch was done he uncurled and let go with his hind legs, a slick move that landed him on all fours on the ground below. I can only figure that the other two on the branch were personal trainers or coaches, they tried to hide it, but I think I saw a clipboard.

So I'm not too sure what's up with these squirrels. It's either one of two possibilities; they are doing a conditioning program in preparation for their eventual rise to supremacy (and you thought Hitchcock's Birds was scary) or they recently saw Super Size Me and realized just how bad all the food is that they have been eating...this would also explain all the seemingly pointless running that they do.

I'm keeping my eye on these little rodents, after all, 'it's the quiet ones you have to watch' and when was the last time the squirrels popped up on our radars...I think they are up to something...