Squirrel!
 

Yesterday I went for a quick ride after I had got off work, and along the trail it is quite common to see squirrels, snakes, turkeys, deer, and etc. While going around a sweeping left turn, I spotted a squirrel just chilling in the middle of the trail. I decide to gradually shift to the left to avoid the squirrel and about 5 feet before I get to it, it begins to dodge to the right. My first thought was good, not going to run him over and get squirrel bits in my wheels. Then at about a foot from my front tire, he decides to zig instead of zag. He turns left! Right under the front tire, followed by the rear. *thump thump* I look down, and notice that I didn't have any squirrel bits caught in my wheels; everything is just fine and keep on riding down the path!

On my way back through the area I take a look around on the trail and the side to see if I could find any evident of the squirrel. Couldn't find him, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't going to be long for this world and got picked up by a bird or a snake if he got off the trail.

And that's the story of the first animal that I have hit on a bike! I've come very close in the past, but never actually done the deed. How many other people have ran over animals on the road?

Kamikaze squirrels are rampant around my area. I have run over a couple like that.

Squirrels are so damn stupid. I nearly hit one... instead of going left it ran right where I was going. I hit a car because of that silly thing next time I will just roll over it. My knee just hurted me for several days but I was fine.

I got a squirrel once. I was biking along a path and he suddenly ran out directly under my front wheel (rear missed). I stopped about 20ft past and we both just stared at each other, before he ran off.
I need to get a little squirrel decal to put on my top tube...

I think squirrels are hard-wired to run zig-zags. Either that or they're too stupid to decide which tree to run to. I had one run right between my wheels once, but luckily never IN a wheel.

Mods- please delete this Thread before PETA catches on and stops all biking!

Murderer.

Steer for the squirrels head (all animals understand how to move their heads out of harms way). The squirrel may have thought you were attacking (they really don't understand the cuteness/kindness stuff). It tried to out smart what it thought was a deceptive attack (the very definition of too smart, by half).

I ran over a snake once. I was in one of the patchy bright sun and shady tree areas... and didn't see the little snake till I hit it.

I bark at them from a distance so they don't wait until I am right on them to do their thing. Yes, they ALWAYS seem to double back. It's the whole bushy tail evolution, the large tail seems to be going one way while the body goes another to confuse predators. So zig zagging IS built into them. And doubling back.


Suicidal rabbits respond to the bark better.

Hit a cat at 32 mph. Same thing... I braced for a crash and it simply went thump thump and it kept running!

I suspect that might be the case. It would make sense as a defense against hawks who are much faster, but can't make hard adjustments on an attack run. So the squirrel's only method of escape is to find a small space to hide in, or to constantly change direction.

They are hard wired to be unpredictable. Predators have been issues for squirrels for probably the past million years or so. Wheels going faster than 10 mph about 200 years. In a few centuries I suspect we will see some changes in squirrel behavior. (The American buffalo changed from circling up to face enemies to running away to adopt to mankind that started using bows and arrows. They couldn't adopt fast enough to the new guns of the later half of the 19th century where one man could fell 100 or more of them from out of sight and earshot.)

Squirrel patterns work really well in the wild. Don't believe me? Look at how many of them are out there. (And we should be thankful for those creatures. They reforested much of the northern half of this country by stashing acorns and seeds and forgetting where they put them/planted them. They have a 10% recall rate on where those acorns got stashed. That's a lot of future trees.)

Ben

Hit a bunny while descending at about 35mph, got a massive speed wobble and endo'd into a gravel filled ditch. Broke my shoulder blade, 3 ribs, partial collapsed lung and ligament damage in my ankle........stupid ass bunny!

As mentioned above, the best thing to do is aim for their head. If you try to avoid them, they will try to "deke you out" and you invariably end up hitting them...


I've never run over a rabbit ...but I did have one "bounce" off the spokes of the rear wheel last autumn.
Made a nice "SPRONG" sound. No damage to bike or bunny. :lol:

Same thump-thump for me about 3 weeks ago but this was on a street not a path while riding in a paceline. Sucker came flying across the road from a house yard. One of the riders asked what it felt like and I answered "thump-thump" then explained that if it was a racoon it would have felt more like "THUMP-THUMP" or "THUMP-CRASH!"

Thanks for that!

I had a frog jump into my front spokes, It went around a couple times in there. Glad it was small, if it would have be a squirrel I would have sustained injuries. Had a rabbit stare at me for a bit then dart across the MUP the other day. That didn't make me very happy.

I overtook a small bird. One wing got caught in my front spokes. Poor thing got spun around and I ran over it's neck, causing it to explode.

A woman I know got hit in the head by a Canadian goose that had just taken off. She fell and suffered an inured shoulder and concussion. The impact was so strong the goose's abdomen to split open. It went crashing to the ground, spilling its intestines.

I have not. But the day I bought my (previous) bike, I took the scenic route home, and hit a flying bird. With my face.

Don't mess with geese. I've seen them bite somebody and draw blood. He was drunk, and provoked the goose; it was having relations with another goose, and this moron decides it's time for a selfie "with nature."

I've also seen a Canada goose chase a rottweiler away from its goslings.

My favorite "close shave" was as chipmunk on bike route, like the OP, it's sitting in the middle of the trail. I use my typical "PSSSTT! PSSSTTT!" to get it to clear my path. It darts to the left side of the trail and just for fun runs straight across the trail as I'm passing. It ran between the wheels and I could hear and feel the chipmunk scrap my chainring as it passed under me.

Then there's this dumb video I posted of the turkeys on my commute route:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/6/7603...f93_z.jpg?zz=1

I can't believe this picture hasn't bene posted yet.

Please discuss.

We've had some lively debates here about whether the mechanics of what appears to have happened in that photo are even possible.

Yeah. They can be nasty. There are a lot of them along a popular recreation path around a river here in Philly near my house. Not only do they crap all over the path, they will nip at you, especially when they are with their chicks. For a while, a pair was nesting in the low foliage outside our NJ office. One came after an employee trying to enter the building. He had to fend it off with his briefcase. The building owner got rid of the foliage so they don't nest there anymore.

I've hit squirrels, snakes, quail, and a turkey hen. I thought the turkey might take me down, but I stayed upright and she only lost a few feathers as far as I could tell.