Dafuq you want?
Photo taken: August 22, 2016
The life of a park squirrel is pretty easy compared to its cousins who are forced to share land with angry homeowners who sometimes own weapons of sciurine destruction. But there is a small price for that city protection… namely, some kind of marking and tracking system that leaves many of the park’s furry denizens with weird looking ears. When I post a photo of a marked squirrel, oftentimes one of my readers will chime in that it must have “earned” its ear notch in a fight with another squirrel. While that happens a lot, these notches I catch in the park squirrels are way too clean and appear to have been deliberately made. I mean…. look at that perfectly rectangular hunk that this squirrel has missing from his left ear! He’d look pretty trendy on the emo scene, but I have a feeling he’s prefer to have not had the Van Gogh job done on him…
it looks a little like my friend who got such an ear too as her earrings build a connection with her scarf…ouch!
That’s gotta hurt. Though there are piercings where such a way of “expanding” them would probably hurt even worse…
oh yes! sadly that parts are often covered so the gleeful crowd can not laugh and applaude…
I’m wondering if maybe Phenny’s Mom is on the right trail here – I bet this squirrel got his/her earring stuck on his/her winter scarf or sweater and caused this notched ear injury. These things happen………..
Pam
It’s a jungle out there in the park. If this squirrel was wearing some fancy earrings, one of the bigger squirrels might’ve yanked it out himself. He’s probably glad he didn’t get that nosering he always wanted…
Poor fellow, but looks cute. Have you ever seen an ugly squirrel ?
This is the closest I’ve come to finding an ugly squirrel. And I think I just caught him from an unflattering angle…
https://evilsquirrelsnest.com/2016/08/20/unpretty/
People can’t go around cutting chunks out of squirrels’ ears 😦
You would think so, right? Who knows what other strange experiments are being cast on the park squirrels by these madmen?
Poor thing! That must have hurt. At least it wasn’t fatal.
I would guess that whoever did that did at least give the poor thing some anesthesia… though I wouldn’t wager a lot of money on it. That is the most exaggerated ear notch I’ve seen yet…. most are more narrow slits.
That chunk is like the ones they put on loose cats after they catch & release or see the cat is fixed. But wow, that is a huge hunk & I haven’t heard that we need to sterilize squirrels because they are everywhere.
Maybe he got it caught on a branch as he was flying around.
OMG! I didn’t even think of that, and I’ll bet you’re right! The park is overrun with squirrels, and I’ll bet this is their way of controlling the population (Which certainly beats the alternative). So they’re losing more than just a piece of their ears…. poor squirrels!
Everyone I know with chunks out of their ears are cats. That includes my idiot cat Oscar who is on my shit list today. But that squirrel is not on my list. It is just too cute and definitely Emo.
We have quite the emo population in my park. I assume next they will dye their fur black… or maybe bright purple.
He’s been given a notch up in the Squirrell hierarchy! lol..
A notch like that better be at least a captain! There won’t be much left to “decorate” if he makes general…
Perhaps he really went in for a tattoo and got a duck carving in his ear instead. 😉
It DOES look like a duck! That is a very creative body mod he’s got there…
Ow. Poor baby. I hate it when they clip the feral cat’s ears to show they’ve been neutered, too. It seems like the final indignity.
Animal body part mutilation should have its limits. Hopefully the non-neutered squirrels don’t make fun of the ear notched ones…