Recently we hosted our monthly Animal Communication practice group at our house. We were all standing in our great room talking when we noticed our barn kittens, Simba and Sophia, in our front yard. We all wandered over to see what they were up to, and noticed a grey squirrel hanging upside down on the trunk of a tree. It was quickly obvious that the three were interacting together, so we decided to watch and listen in to their conversation.
Simba and Sophia were about nine months old at the time, still young and learning about life. As we watched, Simba slowly backed up until he was underneath our deck. Sophia remained motionless in the grass, staring intently at the squirrel. The squirrel then slowly came down into the grass, and began walking away from the tree, a little bit at a time. We thought this was very odd, as there were 2 cats fairly close by. The squirrel seemed unconcerned.
As we watched, Sophia began to inch closer to the squirrel, a few steps at a time. The squirrel seemed to be watching her, but he did not rush away. Suddenly Simba charged out from underneath the deck and ran straight towards the squirrel…who quickly went up the trunk of the closest tree. The squirrel once again turned around and stayed motionless on the tree, except for the occasional twitching of his tail, looking at the cats. No one moved for quite some time, until the cats began to lose interest and move away. Then, the squirrel would come down the trunk of the tree, and the scenario would repeat itself all over again. It was an intriguing dance to watch.
We asked the squirrel what he was doing, because he obviously was up to something with these young cats. He said that he was teaching the cats how to hunt, which surprised us. We asked why he, a prey animal, was teaching 2 predators how to hunt. The squirrel told us that he was a Teacher, and that because the kittens’ mother had not taught them to hunt, he was helping them to learn. He said that he knew that he could get away from them because they were young and inexperienced. It was a fascinating to watch – each time the cats would stalk and spring, and each time they would just miss the squirrel.
Eventually the cats began to get closer to the squirrel. He abruptly ended the lesson by running all the way up into a tree and disappearing. It was wonderful to experience the dance between predator and prey, to see them work cooperatively to allow the kittens to learn.
If you keep your eyes open and notice the interactions of animals around you, you may be surprised at what you learn!
