The "science of cute”. 🐿️

I tend to question most things I see online. Today was no exception. I was sent images of squirrels supposedly landing on the ground like superheroes after jumping from trees (one fist in the ground and the other arm stretched out behind them).

I really, really wanted to believe this. It’s too cool! But my mind immediately went… are these AI-generated?

As it turns out, this claim has been doing the rounds for years. The pictures are real. The context is not. That’s not a squirrel landing. It’s what a squirrel looks like during the activity of scratching their armpit with their hind leg.

And how do they in fact land? "When in a controlled fall, squirrels will spread their limbs out wide to increase air resistance and hit the ground like a bushy-tailed pancake. This helps spread the force of the impact over a greater area to prevent injury."

https://guloinnature.com/do-squirrels-land-like-superheroes/