Squirrel fall !

[Answerprancer]

This morning as I was sipping my coffee and chatting with one of my housemates, a squirrel landed on the CONCRETE beside us with the sound of a falling bag of basmati rice !
In the brief moment of the impact, I worked out that it had fallen from the side of the house at a vertical distance of about forty feet, then it just ran off back up into the trees!
I couldn't believe it survived this fall unscathed (maybe it had broken a bone or two). Is this normal ?

[jno]

cats are supposed to do this all the time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17492802

I suspect a lot of the same factors apply

[karenmac60]

I dunno, but I like your description of the sound :-)

[woofgang]

I have seen this once. I was in the forest with my elderly dog and just as we passed under a tree, a squirrel fell out and landed on its back about a foot in front of her nose. It made a squirrelly noise which I guess was the equivalent of "oh sh1t" and was on its feet and back up the tree before she could react. And yes....it sounded just like dropping a packet of rice.

[bigbadmarty]

I wouldn't know .
We only use Uncle Ben's boil-in- the- bag

[Answerprancer]

LOL Marty, imagine the larger sized bag (cooked) falling on concrete about five feet away from you ..or an over ripened medium sized marrow with legs.
The poor wee beasties must have this built into their medium-sized rodent psyches as an occupational hazard.

[boxtops]

That link about cats is interesting - still reminded me horribly of the story a while back where some louts threw a cat out of a high window, then went back more than once and threw it out again. That one didn't survive.

[firewatch]

Its fight or flight and adrenalin making it run, no prey animal if it can will run no matter how badly wounded.

[wildwood]

The smaller the animal, the greater the height it can fall from, unhurt. All things being equal, the terminal velocity of a falling squirrel is much slower then that of a cat, and both animals are built to take a decent fall as that is what's needed to survive. The supple muscles of cats and squirrels can stand a fair whack. Evenso, they do get hurt in extreme cases.

I am not sure but something which isn't built for jumping like a mouse would be able to fall from any height without serious damage, being a lot lighter than the bigger animals.