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Joy

Flying squirrel repeatedly fakes its own death with a broom handle and people are losing it

And the Oscar goes to…

pet flying squirrel playing dead
@BirrelleBee/Twitter

Dramatic flying squirrel makes it look like the broom fell on it. Spoiler: It did not.

Animals can be far cleverer than we give them credit for, especially creatures we don't think of as having distinct personalities. Most of us expect cats and dogs to do show us their unique quirks, but what about a flying squirrel?

A video is making its way around the internet that has people giggling over the dramatic antics of a large pet flying squirrel. It includes no narration explaining what's happening and no context—it just shows a flying squirrel repeatedly faking its own death by broom.

That's right. Death by broom. And from the way it looks, the little bugger came up with the idea on its own and made multiple attempts to create a convincing crime scene.

This is one you just have to see.

Twitter user @Birrellebee wrote that the squirrel "faked his own death, and created a whole crime scene…for attention. I think I'm in love."

Whether the squirrel really did this just for attention or for some other reason isn't clear, but no one seems to offering a more plausible explanation for it.

Watch:

While some people have expressed understandable concern over flying squirrels living indoors as pets, we don't know what the living situation here really is. Maybe the squirrel was injured and rescued. Maybe it can't survive in the wild. We simply don't know.

What we do know is that this adorable rodent deserves an Oscar for its performance. The way it gracefully somersaults right into position. The placing of the broomstick on its neck and splaying itself out flat on its back. The checking to see if anyone is looking. The repositioning of the murder weapon multiple times to figure out which one seems more believable.

Was that really what it was doing? Who knows. But it was a genuinely incredible performance nonetheless.

And of course, the people of the internet didn't disappoint in the comments.

“@GreigBeck @BirrelleBee @MAllanScott It’s an insurance scam.”

This article originally appeared on 6.6.23

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