In this weeks' Blog, I shall describe a very unsettling scene I witnessed one hot August day at the Grand Canyon, northern Arizona, USA. I was photographing and researching for a book about the Grand Canyon when I saw the startling events described below.
First, a description of the three pictures above. The first wide shot is of a lady, from Europe, speaking in German, to a cute little squirrel as she calmly ate her sweet roll, her danish, probably a cinnamon roll.
The second picture is a close-up look of the danish.
The third picture, a close-up of the daring squirrel, not looking at me, looking at the danish.
I had just stepped out of the Bright Angel Lodge and saw this lady sitting on a rock wall at the very edge of the South Rim Trail, the Grand Canyon stretching out, beyond and below.
After taking this picture I watched for a few seconds more as the lady began speaking softly again to the squirrel. Then suddenly, without warning, the squirrel squared away, facing the lady directly. And in one quick leap it jumped at the danish and tore away a huge chunk of that delicacy. The woman shrieked. Then she screamed. Everyone, including myself, froze. And in one fluid motion, with her free right hand she swatted the squirrel so hard that it soared into the air (still holding onto that precious chunk of danish), up and over the clinging bushes at the very edge of Grand Canyon. I could see the squirrel arcing over the foliage and then sailing down into the abyss of the Grand Canyon...the bottom some 2,000 feet below.
I remember earlier on the day a Shuttle Bus driver telling me that of all the animals from mountain lions or black bears on down, the most dangerous animal at the Grand Canyon were the squirrels. There are signs all over the South Rim Trail, the heaviest concentration of visitors use this paved trail, warning visitors not to feed, touch or tease these cute but aggressive creatures. What I witnessed confirmed those warnings.
I was so shocked by what I saw I wrote a book about these squirrels, "Squirrels, Vicious and Desperate". You can get your copy of this book and my 12-volume "Visit the Zoo" book series for your Kindle, Nook, Tablet, iPad, smartphone, by going to the links below and in the Search Bar, typing in "Frederick Fichman".
Well, that's it for this week. Thank you for reading this TRUE story. Have a great weekend and marvelous week ahead.
Frederick Fichman
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