Human sized squirrels

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 bouldery bits 30 Jun 2020

While out on my run this evening, I spotted a squirrel dashing across a wall. Got me wondering about how impressive an animal a human sized squirrel would be.

 Tom Valentine 30 Jun 2020
In reply to bouldery bits:

I've always wondered whether human size squirrels would cope with the same discrimination that regular size squirrels encounter in the UK.  

Dirty bastards over here spreading disease, eating all our food. They just don't belong here. No grey in the Union Jack . 

And so on.

 henwardian 01 Jul 2020
In reply to bouldery bits:

Something to be damned afraid of to be sure. If as demure an animal as a rabbit can become an enraged, hissing, teeth gnashing threat to human life just by being a bit bigger than a regular rabbit, just imagine what a scourge of human existence the beast of which you conceive would be! I could be the end of humanity!!

(for reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter_rabbit_incident)

 mondite 01 Jul 2020
In reply to bouldery bits:

Bit on the short arse size but what about a Bhutan giant flying squirrel?

Looks like they didnt get that big historically though.

 Blue Straggler 01 Jul 2020
In reply to henwardian:

Thought this was going to be a trailer for Night of the Lepus! 

 profitofdoom 01 Jul 2020
In reply to bouldery bits:

The only really scary human-sized being is............................

............................humans

In reply to bouldery bits:

> While out on my run this evening, I spotted a squirrel dashing across a wall. Got me wondering about how impressive an animal a human sized squirrel would be.

I wonder if a human sized squirrel could climb harder than Ondra.

 nikoid 01 Jul 2020
In reply to bouldery bits:

It's a scaling problem!

 Lankyman 01 Jul 2020
In reply to tom_in_edinburgh:

> I wonder if a human sized squirrel could climb harder than Ondra.


'Adam' and 'Ondra' mean 'tree-climbing' 'nut eater' in Czech. I thought this was common knowledge?

 Graeme Hammond 01 Jul 2020
In reply to bouldery bits:

A bit like this? (A favourite hidden camera show from before everyone had a camera on their phone)

youtube.com/watch?v=4AmIR3bfegg&

 dsh 01 Jul 2020
In reply to bouldery bits:

Squirrels can survive falls at their terminal velocity. If you increased it to the size of a human it's total mass would increase by a far greater amount than its surface area so it wouldn't be able to. So probably less impressive!

 Timmd 01 Jul 2020
In reply to dsh:

I'm not doubting this, but I wonder why squirrels don't regularly plummet from 20 feet high up in the UK if this is true, maybe it would take it's toll on squirrel limbs if they did do?

I have an image in my head of leafy residential roads where there's squirrels landing left and right as one goes along them.

Post edited at 18:04
OP bouldery bits 01 Jul 2020
In reply to Timmd:

Good point!

Squirrel attack from above.

OP bouldery bits 01 Jul 2020
In reply to Graeme Hammond:

Bring back Dom Joly and his big phone.

In reply to Timmd:

> I'm not doubting this, but I wonder why squirrels don't regularly plummet from 20 feet high up in the UK if this is true, maybe it would take it's toll on squirrel limbs if they did do?

Maybe they only have a limited number of lives like cats.

To investigate the science behind this one would need to throw a statistically significant number of cats and squirrels out of planes.

 Timmd 02 Jul 2020
In reply to tom_in_edinburgh:

The simplest answer might be that they don't know of their ability to fall and land scot free.

It probably wouldn't be a very ethical experiment if one was to somehow test for this.

.

Post edited at 02:35
 Dave Garnett 02 Jul 2020
In reply to dsh:

> Squirrels can survive falls at their terminal velocity. If you increased it to the size of a human it's total mass would increase by a far greater amount than its surface area so it wouldn't be able to. So probably less impressive!

They'd need stronger trees, too.

Post edited at 11:01
 Toerag 02 Jul 2020
In reply to tom_in_edinburgh:

> I wonder if a human sized squirrel could climb harder than Ondra.


What about a squirrel-sized human? could they climb trees as well as a squirrel? Might need claw hands I suppose.  I wonder how beneficial claw hands would be for a human - after all, people drytool ridiculous things because an axe and front point require hardly anything of a positive hold.

 LastBoyScout 02 Jul 2020
In reply to tom_in_edinburgh:

> To investigate the science behind this one would need to throw a statistically significant number of cats and squirrels out of planes.

On treadmills, or not...?

 Andy Clarke 02 Jul 2020
In reply to bouldery bits:

On our first trip to Yosemite we camped at Crane Flat, which has a more backwoods vibe than the sites down in the Valley, and bear action was more likely. We all got very excited the first time one wandered into camp, and rushed to get our cookware to bang while shouting "Go Bear!" as we'd been instructed. The bear looked idly round, scratched his ear, yawned and thereafter ignored us while he went about his business. We decided cameras made more sense than saucepans and quickly changed implements. Eventually a ranger turned up, stood behind the car door so her uniform didn't frighten him off and - pretty much as star-struck as the rest of us - sighed, "He's just like a big squirrel really."

In reply to henwardian:

I think Bonaparte had a bit of an incident with angry rabbits.


New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...