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ANN ARBOR, MI — There are still plenty of squirrels on the UM campus. Of course.
Foxes on the Diag — the orange belly — outnumbered UM in her hometown a decade ago when Gail McCormick said she was a UM student.
But these days, spaces need more words to express their larger size.
“These things are very busy,” McCormick said.
Their “poop,” The Urban Dictionary’s term for fat animals, is a social media sensation, even though wildlife experts and wildlife enthusiasts say the food they’re beating is unhealthy. Dear people, our furry friends are bad for their health.
Check out the UM reddit page, and every day someone posts a picture with a caption like “EXTRA Chonky Diag Squirrel” or “the supreme chonk.”
(Just for fun, two more weeks ago with the captions “Saw this little dog on my way to camp” and “He radiated energy.”)
The photo taken by freshman Cori Spetnagel at the top of this story, however, shows a squirrel that has just been fed Cheerios by students.
“The poor man is just eating and living,” he said.
The growing circle of these Rubenesque squirrels is a surprise to UM alums and those who visit campus.
One joke is that a hiker should search the internet for “what do pregnant squirrels look like?” Another is that the addition of a Joe’s Pizza on South University Avenue coincided with an increase in the body mass of squirrels. Another student has also seen them feeding Twizzlers.
Ann Arbor resident Olivia Post said the fear-mongering is not the way it should be, saying “eating out of fear, I guess!” For more reactions to squirrels getting bigger, check out this Twitter thread saw over 400 reactions.
According to the UM Museum of Zoology, the fox’s diet includes acorns, hickory, walnuts, mulberries and hawthorn seeds. Feeding squirrels makes them dependent on humans for food and makes them more comfortable approaching people, which can lead to negative interactions, zoologists say.
At UM, the Squirrel Club is a student organization that works to feed the campus squirrel a healthy diet of nuts or seeds. It’s a way for campers to come together during the fall and winter months when squirrels are fattening up for the cold, according to the club’s website.
Lainah Grace, a former member of the Squirrel Club at UM, said she had to have a peanut in her coat pocket “100% of the time” when she ate.
“Fears are not afraid,” he said, adding that they were “greater than anything he had ever seen.”
For current students like Spetnagel, students who feed on the wrong foods are more likely to make internet jokes about their curves than healthy results.
“Try not to think too much about the health of these meadows,” he said. “But it’s good to exchange these photos with your friends.”
Read from the Ann Arbor News:
This University of Michigan senior film needs an international crew and $20K
88 years and many books: A look at the Ulrich Library through the decades
Michigan AND Michigan State? How in the world will the Michigander stop being thankful for both?
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