Why You're Seeing So Many Dead Squirrels on the Road Right Now

Anecdotally, people are reporting seeing an unusually large number of squirrels, hit by cars and killed, on the road right now.

I killed one myself just this morning on the way to work. This happened in the center lane of an interstate with three lanes going each direction. That squirrel had no business being there!

And if I had attempted to avoid running over that pool fellow, I would have endangered myself and everyone around me.

So here is my theory. All of the squirrels born in the Spring reached maturity at a time when there was basically no one on the road. They became quite accustomed to going anywhere they wanted with absolutely no repercussions.

It takes squirrels 14 weeks from birth to their adulthood. So the timeline checks out.

Now, just in the last couple of weeks the number of cars on the road has increased dramatically. The return to hybrid education, which is the reason I have been on that highway for the first time since mid-March, is just one example of why. Indoor dining has also recently be resumed here in New Jersey.

So these young squirrels have been doing things like running across interstate highways and other roads for months, and almost all of them have lived to tell the story of why there's no reason not to do it.

Until now.