{"id":359584,"date":"2025-08-20T14:05:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/359584\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T14:05:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:05:11","slug":"zombie-squirrels-covered-in-strange-growths-spotted-in-us-and-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/359584\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Zombie squirrels\u2019 covered in strange growths spotted in US and Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reports of the infected squirrels date back to mid-2023 but sightings have been made in recent months, the outlet said. <\/p>\n

Squirrel fibromatosis, a common skin disease among grey squirrels in the US, isn\u2019t usually threatening to a squirrel\u2019s ability to survive unless the sores spread to its internal organs in rare cases, according to 9News Australia. <\/p>\n

Despite their grotesque appearance, the infected rodents don\u2019t pose a threat to humans or common pets like cats and dogs, it reported. <\/p>\n

Wildlife biologist Shevenell Webb, of Maine\u2019s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, told the Bangor Daily News there isn\u2019t much \u201creally to worry about\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"AA “zombie squirrel” that was rescued by an animal rehabilitation centre in Michigan, US. Photo \/ Facebook \/ Halfway Home Wildlife Rehab<\/p>\n

Regardless of the lack of risk, Webb did not recommend trying to help infected animals. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt [the virus] is naturally occurring and will run its course in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Webb told the outlet the diseased squirrels are, for the most part, \u201cjust really ugly to look at\u201d.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, wild rabbits with strange horn-like tumours<\/a> were spotted around the state of Colorado. <\/p>\n

The large tumours, which looked like something out of a horror movie, were caused by Cottontail papilloma virus (CRPV). <\/p>\n

\"AA rabbit that has been infected with CRPV. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Although the tumours are thought to be painless and typically clear up over time, diseased rabbits may starve if the growths are large enough to prevent them from eating.<\/p>\n

Colorado Parks and Wildlife told the Associated Press the virus can not spread to humans or other animals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reports of the infected squirrels date back to mid-2023 but sightings have been made in recent months, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[15974,12634,5176,51064,126537,10911,943,50455,126531,126533,126534,7766,256,17739,70,69315,126535,126536,63093,126530,126532,16,15,978,1717,110805],"class_list":{"0":"post-359584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-across","9":"tag-american","10":"tag-and","11":"tag-animal","12":"tag-backyards","13":"tag-been","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canadian","16":"tag-covered","17":"tag-growths","18":"tag-hairless","19":"tag-have","20":"tag-in","21":"tag-large","22":"tag-science","23":"tag-shelters","24":"tag-sometimes","25":"tag-sores","26":"tag-spotted","27":"tag-squirrels","28":"tag-strange","29":"tag-uk","30":"tag-united-kingdom","31":"tag-us","32":"tag-wildlife","33":"tag-zombie"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115061478169655542","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}