Recently, an older article I hadn’t seen before was brought to my attention because of its very unexpected headline: Scientists document carnivorous squirrels in California who hunt voles. Yes, you read that right! Some squirrels have started hunting smaller mammals!

Squirrels are typically thought of as clever, furry little creatures, stealing nuts and birdseed from birdfeeders. No one pictures them stalking, killing, and then chowing down on a vole. And yet a group of researchers observed California ground squirrels in the California Bay Area doing just that. Researchers believe the carnivorous behavior is because the vole population “boomed” that year, with five to six times more voles available than normal. It appears the squirrels “took advantage” of the population explosion to expand their diets.

And apparently this isn’t totally unique:

There’s been accumulating evidence of one or two events within a species of a red squirrel taking a sparrow. . . They tend to. . . try to take chickens.

Carnivorous squirrels are a good reminder of what happened to all of creation after Adam and Eve sinned.

Carnivorous squirrels are a good reminder of what happened to all of creation after Adam and Eve sinned. Before sin, everything—squirrels included—was vegetarian, eating the plants and seeds God created (Genesis 1:30). But after Adam sinned, God cursed the ground, and all of creation began to groan. Animals began to eat one another, and today we still see unexpected examples of both carnivory (like with these squirrels) and herbivory (did you know there’s a vegetarian spider?). Both remind us of how God’s creation was designed originally: as very good (Genesis 1:31).

Yes, creation now groans because of sin—right down to the California ground squirrels! We have to remember that we must build our thinking on God’s Word beginning in Genesis to understand we are not looking at the world as God made it, but at the world he made that now suffers from the effects of the fall.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.