how far can a squirrel jump?

Frank Fusco

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Mountain Home, Arkansas
Completely useless thing to contemplate, I'll admit. But, our home is in a semi-rural area and we enjoy watching wildlife in the back yard. Recently we were watching out the back window and noticed a young grey squirrel just jumping and playing around. It climbed about ten feet up a large tree then jumped to a fallen log then turned around and jumped back to the tree. He did this a couple times. I was amazed at the distance he jumped, especially without being chased. I just went out with a tape and measured, it was in excess of 30 feet and he didn't even look like he was trying. A little Internet research turned up that squirrels can jump "as much as six feet". Oh, yeah. Animals are amazing critters.
 
Getting ready for the squirrel olympics you think? :rofl:

Neat story Frank, I remember trying to catch squirrels that the cat had brought in when we lived in Maine, not at all surprised they can jump more than 6', but I never would have guessed as high as 30' :huh:
 
Sure they aren't flying squirrels? There are some in Kimberling City that frequent my Aunt and Uncles back yard. They are really amazing!
 
It can jump as high as needed to reach the bird feeded.:thumb:

Learned that the hard way. We used to have our bird feeder hanging in the center of a ~30 foot long clothes line (ran from the back fence to the play structure.) That worked for about 4 years until a squirrel came along that taught itself how to get on that clothesline and hang from it like a sloth and go "hand over hand" along the line to get to the bird feeder.

We also had some squirrels that would climb up the nearby fence and try to do a standing jump to clear the intervening ~5-6 feet.

We have defeated the squirrels (for now) buy putting in a pole with a squirrel baffle on it. (Like this from LVT)
 
I was deer hunting a couple years ago. I was about 20 feet up in a stand watching a squirrel in a tree directly across from me. He was about 10 foot away sitting on a limb. I had been watching this dang thing for awhile. Out of the blue it fell right out of that tree! It fell the full 20 feet landing with a thud. I thought for sure it was dead. It laid on the ground for a couple minuets, then it got up dazed and confused and finally jumped back in a tree. I was laughing so hard my dang tree was shaking!
 
Dad would protect his feeders with aluminum foil - oh, and a battery with a capacitor attached!:eek: He said you've never seen a squirrel fly until he hit that second piece of foil!:D

Wes
 
We have a lot of problems with the moose and bird feeders. A bit off topic, but when the snow gets deep like it is this year, the moose come towards the houses, smash their noses into the bird feeders, either breaking the glass, or letting the seed fall to the ground where they eat it up. My poor grandmother goes through a couple of feeders every year from the moose.
 
I solved the squirrel in the bird feeder problem by simply building a Squirrel Feeder and I feed them when I feed the birds, They leave the Bird Feeders alone as it is too much trouble when they have an abundant supply of their own goodies, I supply Corn cobs, leftover Christmas nuts, peanuts gone stale, as well as bagels & biscuits, stale chips and pretzels. Also I pick up the Walnuts in the fall and bag them to feed them in the winter.
 
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