Bulletproof squirrel may not be quite so bulletproof

A squirrel on the North Shore of Louisiana is alive and still gathering nuts after apparently taking a bullet. “How is he alive? How did that bullet get there?” wonders scenic and wildlife photographer Christine Regusa, who discovered the bulletproof squirrel in her Covington backyard.



Regusa took a photograph that shows what appears to be a 22 calibre bullet dangling from behind the squirrel’s right arm, “I was on the bench over there. Squirrel was right by the tree. Didn’t even look at the picture after I took it until the next night.

“Then I realized, oh, no! It’s a bullet!” She dubbed the neighbourhood varmint, Bullet Squirrel. “Clearly the squirrel has been shot,” says Dr. Rose Lemarie at Southeast Veterinary Specialists. Lemarie says even with a .22 calibre lodged in its side, the squirrel’s prognosis is good.


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“Luckily for this squirrel the bullet went in at an angle. It didn’t affect bone. It doesn’t look like it affected nerve or really even muscle,” she said. However, other people are suggesting the lump is not a bullet but perhaps a parasite instead, and that the lump could be from a worm parasite instead.

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