Squirrels doing the wave!

(Feel free to move if in the wrong forum, as I did not know where to put it)

Living in a fairly heavily wooded area as I do, I tend to see a lot of things that most people overlook in nature, and lately I have been boggled by this behavior. I was watching a family of squirrels run across the yard when I noticed something interesting: as they move, their bodies seem to undulate in such a way as to produce a 'wave' motion from head to tail!



Since, I have been trying to find other animals exhibiting similar behavior, and aside from the obvious,(fish, worms, snakes etc.), I have found that it seems to me that humans are the ONLY vertebrate that do not seem to follow this pattern, at least that I have personally observed. I am interested to see how many different types of animal move in this way, if not all, and would gladly welcome explanation for this behavior, as this is a subject a bit too complex for a simple man such as myself to figure out alone

Well his bottom is moving up and down as he runs so it's to be expected his tail will "whip" all by itself I think. Does it work with short tailed animals too?

reply to post by ShadowMonk


I hope this turns out, meaning the link..Having some computer trouble...Funny squirrels..www.youtube.com...

reply to post by wigit


From what I have seen, it does, although I have had trouble actually seeing animals with tails much shorter than about 4 inches because I can't really see if it's moving in the same manner, however the spine seems to for the most part.

reply to post by eeks4


I got your back bro, thanks for the vid! Definitely put a smile on my face!

Fragile Earth: Discussion of climate change, pollution, and environment issues

I don't why mods keep on allowing people to post up cute or interesting animal youtube videos here