Fearless Squirrels

In the wild, it’s kill or be killed; eat or be eaten. But here, in the urban jungle, the call of the wild is replaced by the honking of horns. Squirrels seem to scurry away and hide when humans and dogs come close, because they are taught to. But in rare cases, squirrels have been known to approach people or animals. Squirrels that approach humans may do so for many reasons: desperation, fear, aggression, hunger, and sometimes unknowingness.
Squirrels don’t know by nature to avoid people. That behavior is learned, whether by experience or parental instruction. Young squirrels are known to approach humans; especially when separated from its family. A squirrel that doesn’t know better may move towards human activity in search of food, shelter, or warmth; just seeking out what it instinctively wants.
A squirrel may come at a human or other animal aggressively for a number of reasons. Most of the time, it is because it feels threatened or desperate to get away, and it chooses fight over flight. In rare cases, a squirrel will become aggressive because of rabies. If at any time a squirrel seems aggressive, you should move away from it. You never want to provoke a squirrel, rabid or not.
If a squirrel is rabid, it is not uncommon to act aggressively towards other squirrels, animals, humans, and even inanimate objects. This level of boldness and aggression is often unprovoked. An aggressive squirrel is not necessarily rabid.