do male squirrels kill babies?

[jkutsmeda]

Hi
We had a bizarre experience. I would like to know if others have encountered this. We had a momma squirrel with three young babies in a squirrel box in a tree. Yesterday we saw a black squirrel fighting and biting the momma. He injured her badly to the point of near death and she would not walk, he bit her all over and also in the back several times and severed her spine, she was almost dead. We then went to get the babies out if the box and bring them all to local rehabber and we found all three were bit in the head and were dead. One it seems was even partly chewed on. It was all very disturbing. Momma died also. I have never seen this behavior. I called our local wildlife organization and they insisted squirrels do not do this. Yet I googled it and found that males will kill their babies and fight with the female. I also read black squirrels are particularly aggressive. This particular squirrel is extremely aggressive. He lives a few streets away but comes to mate with our female squirrels I have seen him relentlessly chasing females and when they run for shelter in to the squirrel boxes he aggressively bites the top of the boxes. He even chewed up our deck. All the grey males chase him away when he comes into our yard. . So please let me know if you have heard of this behavior. What would cause a squirrel to do this? We ruled out any other animal as they would have eaten the babies and not just killed them. Your thoughts on this? Thanks
Janice

[TubeDriver]

I am very sorry to hear this, it must have been heart breaking to encounter this. I have heard that young babies will sometimes be killed by adult males, although I do not know how common this is. The momma squirrel will spend a great deal of time right next to her babies, especially during the first couple weeks, hardly leaving their side at all, both to feed and care for them and also I suspect to protect them.

This male sounds particularly vicious, the fact that he killed the momma squirrel is very disturbing. I have several black squirrels in my yard and while a couple are pretty tough, one is very gentle. There is a continuum for behavioral traits among all animals (including people) and it sounds like this male squirrel is just particularly aggressive and territorial.

I must confess, I do not know how I would react after seeing this. It may be on the far end of what is considered "normal" male behavior but I would find it hard to forgive this squirrel for this act. I certainly would not feed it as I would not want to encourage it to hang around in my yard. But that is a very human viewpoint, what this squirrel did might make perfect sense for a large, wild male squirrel?

Gods Speed loving Momma squirrel, may you travel to somewhere better along with your little babies.

Hi
We had a bizarre experience. I would like to know if others have encountered this. We had a momma squirrel with three young babies in a squirrel box in a tree. Yesterday we saw a black squirrel fighting and biting the momma. He injured her badly to the point of near death and she would not walk, he bit her all over and also in the back several times and severed her spine, she was almost dead. We then went to get the babies out if the box and bring them all to local rehabber and we found all three were bit in the head and were dead. One it seems was even partly chewed on. It was all very disturbing. Momma died also. I have never seen this behavior. I called our local wildlife organization and they insisted squirrels do not do this. Yet I googled it and found that males will kill their babies and fight with the female. I also read black squirrels are particularly aggressive. This particular squirrel is extremely aggressive. He lives a few streets away but comes to mate with our female squirrels I have seen him relentlessly chasing females and when they run for shelter in to the squirrel boxes he aggressively bites the top of the boxes. He even chewed up our deck. All the grey males chase him away when he comes into our yard. . So please let me know if you have heard of this behavior. What would cause a squirrel to do this? We ruled out any other animal as they would have eaten the babies and not just killed them. Your thoughts on this? Thanks
Janice

[Spanky]

I believe what you witnessed is the exception and not the rule but I do not know what may have caused this incident. It sounds like your neighborhood black squirrel already is already an outlier as far as behavior goes. Certainly squirrel fights can result in one (or both?) dying, I read stories here often of vicious fighting. While the squirrels around me do fight, my perception is they do not fight as fiercely as some folks witness. I suspect the lower aggression is a result of plenty of available food and water, a healthy squirrel population (meaning lots of female squirrels so the competition to find a receptive mate is (relatively) less fierce).

In my experience males typically give a wide birth to mommy squirrels and their babies, and if they don't mommy will aggressively defend the territory around they drey their babies occupy. I have even seen "neighboring" mommy squirrels, work together to chase off interlopers (both males and females, but more often than not males). This was very interesting to observe. And the 2 mothers I am speaking of would not tolerate the others' babies wandering into their territory. Then even had their separate times of the day they and their families would visit the feeding stations in my yard; never together. But when it came to defending the hood, they stood (ran, bit and chased) as a team.

[jkutsmeda]

I am very sorry to hear this, it must have been heart breaking to encounter this. I have heard that young babies will sometimes be killed by adult males, although I do not know how common this is. The momma squirrel will spend a great deal of time right next to her babies, especially during the first couple weeks, hardly leaving their side at all, both to feed and care for them and also I suspect to protect them.

This male sounds particularly vicious, the fact that he killed the momma squirrel is very disturbing. I have several black squirrels in my yard and while a couple are pretty tough, one is very gentle. There is a continuum for behavioral traits among all animals (including people) and it sounds like this male squirrel is just particularly aggressive and territorial.

I must confess, I do not know how I would react after seeing this. It may be on the far end of what is considered "normal" male behavior but I would find it hard to forgive this squirrel for this act. I certainly would not feed it as I would not want to encourage it to hang around in my yard. But that is a very human viewpoint, what this squirrel did might make perfect sense for a large, wild male squirrel?

Gods Speed loving Momma squirrel, may you travel to somewhere better along with your little babies.

Tube driver, Thank you for your reply. This incident is so troubling it will haunt me for a long time. I always considered squirrels to be so kind and friendly. We do not feed this squirrel and only see it in our yard during mating season. When I see it harassing my females I try to chase it away. Our older momma we had for years has disappeared for some time. She blessed us with many babies. But after her last liter of six she left our yard. Hoping one day we will see her again. It's a hard life being a female squirrel.

[jkutsmeda]

I believe what you witnessed is the exception and not the rule but I do not know what may have caused this incident. It sounds like your neighborhood black squirrel already is already an outlier as far as behavior goes. Certainly squirrel fights can result in one (or both?) dying, I read stories here often of vicious fighting. While the squirrels around me do fight, my perception is they do not fight as fiercely as some folks witness. I suspect the lower aggression is a result of plenty of available food and water, a healthy squirrel population (meaning lots of female squirrels so the competition to find a receptive mate is (relatively) less fierce).

In my experience males typically give a wide birth to mommy squirrels and their babies, and if they don't mommy will aggressively defend the territory around they drey their babies occupy. I have even seen "neighboring" mommy squirrels, work together to chase off interlopers (both males and females, but more often than not males). This was very interesting to observe. And the 2 mothers I am speaking of would not tolerate the others' babies wandering into their territory. Then even had their separate times of the day they and their families would visit the feeding stations in my yard; never together. But when it came to defending the hood, they stood (ran, bit and chased) as a team.

Thanks spanky,
I agree this squirrel is the exception. Sure hope he doesn't hang around here. I worry I don't have many females left now. My older momma hasn't been seen in a while. Also, Many of my squirrels are missing the ends of their tails too. There is strange stuff going on out there. I read an article in The UK that black squirrels have aggressively taken over and the greys are gone in some places. I also read about a pack of black squirrels killing a dog in Russia. It's all very strange.
-Janice