wisteriao
01-27-2011, 02:51 AM
Our yard is host to numerous squirrels including red, grey and black tree squirrels and small chipmunk-like ground squirrels; we also have the occasional nighttime visit from raccoons and possums. We've been feeding the squirrels nuts (and lately bread since we ran out of nuts) for about 3 1/2 years. We've had some stray cats come through our yard, but we've taken them in, or rescued and adopted them out.
I'm posting that info to give you an idea of the wildlife that comes through our yard as lately, there's been some disturbing rust-colored (as well as bright red) patches that look like blood in the snow on the railing of my deck where they eat. Lately we haven't had any cats come through, and no tracks in the snow to indicate any new ones coming into our yard, and the raccoons seem to have found somewhere else to forage, as they haven't been in our yard in the last few months either. The only thing we've seen besides the squirrels have been rabbits and a baby possum at night. We haven't seen any injuries on any of the squirrels, just these red patches in the snow, and the squirrel population has been pretty constant (we recognize them all by sight, and none seem to be missing).
We're not sure if it is blood, or if it's something else. If it is blood, it seems like whatever was bleeding, stopped to eat, and as many red patches (a series of patches like a trail, running from one section of railing to another) as there are, we think it would be dead by now.
My question is, is this a squirrel in distress, and if so how could it have lost so much blood and lived (we scraped and washed the snow off the railing numerous times, and the patches return almost immediately the next day, it's enough that a human would probably need to go to the hospital if they lost that much blood, but again none of the regular squirrels appear to be missing or injured)? If it is a squirrel in distress, what can we do to help it, especially since we haven't seen any squirrels that appear to be injured? If it's not blood, can it be strange-colored urine (like marking of territory)? Have any of you encountered anything like this before? We're just really confused about this, and worry about the squirrels in our yard. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, thanks so much.
I'm posting that info to give you an idea of the wildlife that comes through our yard as lately, there's been some disturbing rust-colored (as well as bright red) patches that look like blood in the snow on the railing of my deck where they eat. Lately we haven't had any cats come through, and no tracks in the snow to indicate any new ones coming into our yard, and the raccoons seem to have found somewhere else to forage, as they haven't been in our yard in the last few months either. The only thing we've seen besides the squirrels have been rabbits and a baby possum at night. We haven't seen any injuries on any of the squirrels, just these red patches in the snow, and the squirrel population has been pretty constant (we recognize them all by sight, and none seem to be missing).
We're not sure if it is blood, or if it's something else. If it is blood, it seems like whatever was bleeding, stopped to eat, and as many red patches (a series of patches like a trail, running from one section of railing to another) as there are, we think it would be dead by now.
My question is, is this a squirrel in distress, and if so how could it have lost so much blood and lived (we scraped and washed the snow off the railing numerous times, and the patches return almost immediately the next day, it's enough that a human would probably need to go to the hospital if they lost that much blood, but again none of the regular squirrels appear to be missing or injured)? If it is a squirrel in distress, what can we do to help it, especially since we haven't seen any squirrels that appear to be injured? If it's not blood, can it be strange-colored urine (like marking of territory)? Have any of you encountered anything like this before? We're just really confused about this, and worry about the squirrels in our yard. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, thanks so much.