Anyone seen a swimming squirrel? - MOVED FROM Q&A

[SAR-EMT40]

Anyone seen a swimming squirrel?

I remember seeing a pet squirrel that water skied on TV once. I know that most animals can swim but many don't want to. Until today I had never actually seen a squirrel swim. I was kayaking on Upper Kimbell pond and saw something swimming along. At first I thought it was a muskrat but the color and tail was all wrong. As I got closer the size was also wrong. I was 10 feet away and followed him to the opposite shore where he scrambled out. There is no question that it was a grey squirrel. In all my years I have never seen one out for an afternoon swim. If he fell out of a tree then he was only 20 meters from shore and could have swam back but instead decided to swim the 150 meters to the opposite shore. Now I can only come up with two possibilities. One he was rabid and insane but he swam like he had a purpose in life so I am dismissing that for now. The other was that he was being pursued by a predator. Anyone have any swimming squirrel stories. By the way. The funniest part was the fact that he seemed determined to not get his tail wet. He kept it pretty high out of the water.

Keith

 

[1ADAM12]

sounds very interesting. By any chance did you get any pictures?

 

[peak_bgr]

I've seen a squirrel in water once. I remember laughing and referring to it as a drowned rat. Never really thought about them not being a regular swimmer. I would bet dollars to donuts that it was trying to escape a predator, or there was a really cute red squirrel on the other side.

 

[SAR-EMT40]

sounds very interesting. By any chance did you get any pictures?

Oh I so much wished I could have gotten a picture but didn't have a camera.

Keith

 

[Trudy]

Last September I was kayaking in the Hudson River and saw, from a distance of about 100 feet, what I thought was a stick moving against the current. When I approached I saw it was a squirrel, and it had apparently swum all the way across the river, about 1/2 mile in a good chop. It hauled itself out on a low piling; it was exhausted.
I give that squirrel a lot of credit; it's a swim not too many people could have managed.

 

[1ADAM12]

Here is a PICTURE of a squirrel swimming. Also some INFORMATION and tidbits of things you always wanted to know about squirrels

 

[dougb]

I've seen squirrels swimming a couple of times. Once I saw it enter the water - it looked like it just had a bad jump. It caught a thin branch, but couldn't hold on and it fell into the stream. The other time, I think it was just trying to cross at a wide spot - neither time did the squirrels appear to be running away from a predator. Maybe they like to swim on hot days too!

 

[SAR-EMT40]

Here is a PICTURE of a squirrel swimming. Also some INFORMATION and tidbits of things you always wanted to know about squirrels

Thanks lot for the picture and the info. Now I can prove squirrels swim and what I saw wasn't just my imagination.

Thanks dougb and trudy for your sightings as well.

Keith

 

[Sara]

I worked at a summer camp during college and returned to my cabin to find that a squirrel had fallen into my toilet and drowned, but I guess that's another story all-together. Poor squirrel!

 

[mudhook51]

This is only a story that I've heard several times from different people but grey squirrels at times migrate and swim across the Hudson,going east to west. The last time I heard this was from an older(80's) man who had seen it twice in his life living on the banks of the Hudson just above Kingston. I've always dismissed it as a tall tale of sorts but.......