this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
179 points (98.4% liked)

science

20058 readers
773 users here now

A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.

rule #1: be kind

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] TommySalami@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Grew up in Appalachia and this was common knowledge I thought. Everyone kinda knew that squirrels would sometimes eat meat, although there were guesses like opportunity or sickness as to why they did it.

I'm assuming it's a bunk article. No way this was just flying under the radar, unless the hunting part is new. Not sure I remember that being part of it.

[–] whatwhatwhatwhat@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Where I grew up, it wasn’t uncommon to see squirrels eating roadkill. Sometimes that roadkill was other squirrels.

Is it cannibalism if you eat your brother BUT he’s already dead and you didn’t kill him?

[–] smayonak@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

When it's not a matter of survival then we judge. I think most squirrels are pretty hard up for protein and they get it wherever they can.

Jeff Dahmer could have just bought a sandwich.