Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Wild squirrel shakes hands with man

This is the moment a squirrel apparently shakes hands with a walker – after he coaxed it to take a hazelnut from his hand.

Bushcraft expert Steve England, 35, waited motionless for 15 minutes in Stoke Park, Bristol, as the grey squirrel slowly moved towards him.



He then lay perfectly still as the animal gathered enough courage to reach out and pluck the hazelnut from his forefinger and thumb.

Father-of-three Steve, who works as a RHS horticulturalist and lives in Lockleaze, Bristol, was stunned because wild squirrels are usually highly secretive animals.

7 comments:

arbroath said...

Well if he is regular visitor, who just happens to always have hazelnuts in his pocket, it would get to know him and expect food  ;)
The squirrels in the abbey here take food off visitors

arbroath said...

indeed : next to my (ex) job, a "wood" to the south of brussels, i often went & fed the squirrels cookies & nuts during lunch time

arbroath said...

We spent our vacation last year up north (in ONtario), feeding squirrels and chipmunks. We even named two: Furious Squirrel and Dyson Chipmunk.

Furious was originally just angry, but he seemed to become more aggitated when he realised we were nice.

arbroath said...

Eh?!!
 I live in bristol and the squirrels on Brandon hill are so tame they'll eat out of anyone hands, even my 3 year old son who couldn't stay still for 2 seconds

arbroath said...

Het Zoniënwoud?
I have been bitten by a squirrel there once when I was a very young lad. And I remember that they also went after eachother with a vengeance.
But very nice forest- we walked there many weekends. 

arbroath said...

The squirrels at UCLA used to be almost aggressive, jumping up on your table and taking your food.  I don't know if they still are, but they were a real problem for anyone with food.

arbroath said...

yup: watermaal bosvoorde
(for the english speaking ones : you can reach the Groenendaal racing track throught the forest coming from the other side, have jolly fine picnicks there....) (during lunchtime break, that is) (and feed the squirrels in the mean time)