Nature
PUBLISHED
The season of overindulgence has come and passed. But if you're feeling riddled with guilt, building up the courage to renew your long-forgotten gym membership, these squirrels might make you feel a little better – you're not alone.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.The exceptionally mild winter in many areas of the world has led to squirrels across Europe and North America piling on the pounds. The freakishly warm weather has meant trees still have an abundant banquet of nuts and seeds, which the squirrels have been taking full advantage of.
Squirrels don’t hibernate, so to survive the (usually) harsh winter, they gorge on food towards the end of the year to build up fat reserves. This process can lead to squirrels putting on almos a quarter of their body weight in fat.
Iolo Williams, a BBC presenter and wildlife expert, explained to Wales Online that the ample amounts of food around has led to them having extra-thick winter fat layers. However, their thicker winter coat also helps to give them this tubby effect.
The tweets below highlight some of the rather large squirrels spotted in locations across Europe and North America.
the fattest squirrel I've ever seen in my life just stole an avocado from our trash can pic.twitter.com/zoeTV9dhAf
— b (@brob3rts) December 2, 2014
A new low for my favorite fat squirrel. He is now INSIDE the bird feeder. All hope is lost… https://t.co/XuvD5DI60c pic.twitter.com/UGwGGnQ3nK
— Angela T. Palmer (@plantweenie) January 4, 2016
Guys I found the fattest squirrel #fatsquirrel pic.twitter.com/LD18rwkwP3
— Socks Fake (@fox_sake) December 24, 2015
this glorious fat squirrel came really close to me and stuck this pose lol pic.twitter.com/uLl7J1PZ9A
— Sarah Aspler (@saspler) January 2, 2016
Mirror mirror on the wall, is this really what I look like? A fat squirrel? pic.twitter.com/Y8j0etEgKg
— Lander Geadelmann (@lndrgead) January 4, 2016
Main image credit: inventor_Artist/Twitter
