Behavior/ Vocalization question (VIDEO)

[TerinaD]

Hello!

So Ralph is 5 months old now! We've made it halfway through winter and I'm crossing my fingers for a successful release this spring. He still rules the roost here, that's for sure!

My boyfriend took a video of a noise Ralph was making today. This was the first time he had heard it. I heard it one other time, about a month ago, when Ralph jumped on my shoulder and caught a glimpse of a snapchat filter on my phone (Deer antlers, no less. lol).

The noises that came out of him as he ran off that day were familiar squirrel barks, but that was the first time I heard the whistle. It was obvious he was alarmed. His tail was huge!

Today, he was laying in his cage looking out the window when he started making the noise. In the video, he looks mainly relaxed to me, other than a few tail flicks.

What the heck is this noise?

He's a pretty quiet fellow. Other than the happy squirrel grunts we get when we let him out of the cage, he rarely makes noises. Does anybody have a cheat sheet on squirrel postures and vocalizations?


Here is a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSYi4tRLX7o&feature=youtu.be

[Squeekhart]

Hallo TerinaD~~~~

I am not an expert. However, I have read and watched and listened to much coverage on squirrel communications. It sounds to me like a quaaa moan. Probably Ralph saw something he perceives as a predator, like a menacing bird flying outside overhead. I think Quaaa moans are to warn that a predator is seen but is also moving away.

If so, how sweet. He is warning you, you know! If I am correct, Ralph is giving you the heads up that a potential Stalker was spotted, but that it is also moving away.

Below are a couple of helpful and interesting articles with good descriptors and sound bytes on specific squirrel calls and what they mean.

I had a squirrel very dear to me who always felt safe by my side. (On Election Day, the park was swarming with bi-peds. Several humans saw my squirrel, who is wild and lived there, and tried to entice her; but she only perched closer to where I stood, about 6" from my leg. T'was as if she trusted me to know how to protect her from any unsafe bi-peds in the vicinity. Then, one time, an enormous lumbering teenaged boy was in the park, whizzing clumsily and noisily about on a scooter. I had my back to him. Squirrel and I were hanging out on a pathway, when, through the crumbly gnawings of her pecan, she suddenly ~chk chk chked~ to me, gazed, and then fled to a tree. I peered and hustled just in time. That 200 pound boy had decided to jump steps on his scooter and about 2 seconds after I dove to the side of the walkway, he landed that clanky scooter right where Squirrel's pecan shells were. (How RUDE!)

But you see: She had warned me in her squooksome way of Danger. She knew before I did. For a wild squirrel to do that touched me dearly. I miss her quite a bit.

Hope these articles are fun and helpful! (If any expert here knows more or better, feel free to weigh in!)



https://www.wired.com/2014/06/squirrel-alarm-calls-are-surprisingly-complex/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/learn-to-speak-squirrel-in-four-easy-lessons/2012/04/09/gIQAV8Jr6S_story.html?utm_term=.101938d5547a

[cava]

My two are around 6 months (also to be released in the spring) and they do this while looking out the window, just like yours. One of them also does it if I play music. I haven't pinpointed exactly what upsets him. I usually just turn it off. It seems to be an upset sound. I call it whining/crying.

[island rehabber]

That is an "alarm call", which all squirrels will do when they sense impending danger, see or hear something that frightens them. THey do it to warn other squirrels. In the wild, birds like bluejays and crows will play off the squirrels' alarm calls and take up the warning with their own sounds. Once a squirrel starts alarming, it's like the hiccups; they really can't stop until it runs its course. Not even if you put a nut in their mouths. :grin2

[Nancy in New York]

Once a squirrel starts alarming, it's like the hiccups; they really can't stop until it runs its course. Not even if you put a nut in their mouth. :grin2

Are you referring to your little Owena? :)

[island rehabber]

Are you referring to your little Owena? :)

I did have my precious girl in mind, yes.....where is that video? :rotfl

[Roxi's mom]

Whenever my girl would do that I would feel so sad and try to "fix" whatever she was sad about. I didn't know at the time it was a warning, but it did sometimes make me want to cry. It is to me such a lonely sound.