I want to believe

I confess, I want it to be true.

But it is so cute?

I think it is a legend, but I want it to be true.

Borneo natives speak of squirrel that cuts the jugular veins of deer and then feed on portions of the internal organs.  The story local hunters tell goes like this:

...the squirrel waits on a low branch for a deer to pass below, jumps on its back and bites the jugular vein, whereon the deer bleeds to death. Once dead the squirrel proceeds to disembowel the deer and eat the stomach contents, heart and liver. Dayak (Bornean) hunters sometimes find these disemboweled deer in the forest, none of the flesh eaten, which to them is a clear sign of a squirrel kill. In villages close to the forest edge there were also accounts of the squirrel killing domestic chickens and eating the heart and liver only. Although the existence of carnivorous squirrels might be a bit hard to believe, the above might fit the description [from a 1949 study which noted that] Rheithrosciurus is known as being "wary, difficult to observe and biting fiercely." Also, other squirrels, such as the Giant Squirrel Ratufa affinis are known to actively hunt birds and other vertebrates

Maybe someone saw it happen once.  Maybe a squirrel once attacked a member of a hunting party.  It could be true.

By the clenched fists of Teddy Roosevelt, I want it to be true.

The squirrel is elusive and just recently filmed for the first time.  Unfortunately there is no gush of deer blood, it is acting like a normal squirrel.


via GIPHY

The terriers have been telling me for years that every squirrel we meet is just waiting for the opportunity to feast upon our blood and leave us disemboweled upon the trail.  Maybe they're on to some deep primordial truth.