In The Jungles Of Borneo,

the deer are running scared,

as rumours of a vampire squirrel appear to have some foundation according to the Washington Post, the tufted ground squirrel (Rheithrosciurus macrotis) was the subject of a paper in the June 2014 issue of Taprobanica, a journal devoted to Asian flora and fauna and now one has been caught on video once again bringing it into the spotlight, of course it could all be myth as the only reports are from local hunters who claim that the squirrel drops from trees and disembowels the small deer, but, murderous squirrels dropping from trees and disemboweling deer? well think about this, for years, native hunters had been telling tales of a mouse-deer, a species of primitive deer that have fangs, that hide under water and hold their breath when chased by hunting dogs, how unlikely is that? but according to this BBC item it has been found the deer does just that, so maybe the hunters are right and the tufted ground squirrel really is the vampire squirrel from hell! 

squirrels are cute, but can also be deadly from cross species viral infections which many people who keep them as pets or indeed pet them in the wild may not know about, take this report detailing how 3 German squirrel breeders who meet on a regular basis, all died of the same illness in the years 2011 and 2013, all three had died of encephalitis, which is inflammation in the brain, in particular type VSBV-1, it appears that 2 of the men may have been scratched by a squirrel or two, but in any event I will keep tree dwelling tree rats with good PR at a distance from me from now on.