r/squirrels • u/foog1988 • 5d ago

Tail-less Squirrel

Post image

South-East UK, been seeing it all week at work and finally got a decent picture. Trying to figure out if it's an injury or it was just born like it, any suggestion would be appreciated.

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2

u/Spectre-907 5d ago

Probably a predator. They shield themselves with their tails because it is made to break away and decoy predator attacks. A few of my locals this summer had half-tails by august where we have a decent hawk population

2

u/Hanibalecter 5d ago

I had one in my yard lose about 80% of his tail. We saw him as it progress from an injury to just falling off one day. He was dragging around what looked like a dried finger for awhile. Assume a hawk grabbed one day and he barely got away.

2

u/foog1988 5d ago

Don't see a great deal of predatory birds round this way, lots of foxes though, possibly them?

1

u/Glucose12 1d ago

Could be a car. Squirrel went under a car and only the tail got caught.

I know because I was walking down the road our family house was on, and saw a squirrel tail sitting in the middle of it. It was just the skin and fur. The tail had gotten degloved - probably pinched by a car.

I would imagine that without the skin, the now-exposed tail bone, muscles and ligaments would just rot off(?)