How do squirrels dodge fatal falls?

We all see squirrels scurrying about on trees or climbing wires. These rodents move with remarkable agility, and jump from one building to another or from one tree to another with such swiftness that sometimes we perhaps do wonder if they’d have a fatal fall. Apparently, squirrels don’t usually fall to their deaths. So what protects them? Come, let’s find out.

To understand the protection that squirrels have, we have to get into a bit of physics. When any object or living being falls-from any height – there are two forces at play. One is gravity, the force that pulls any object to Earth, and the other is drag or air resistance, the force that air pushes against a moving object. The latter acts in the opposite direction of the falling object, and tries to slow it down. While the force of gravity remains constant through the falling, the force of air resistance increases with increasing speed. As this continues to happen, the force of air resistance finally equals the force of gravity. This is called terminal velocity, and it is the speed when the object cannot full faster the speed stabilises.

Now, we know that usually heavier and larger objects experience greater pull of gravity. But squirrels being small and light, their force of gravity is very low, and thanks to their “stretchy bodies and puffy tails, they experience a lot of air resistance. So, when the air resistance finally matches the low gravity during a fall, the terminal velocity is very low too. At such a low speed, the fall does not become fatal for the squirrel.

Picture Credit : Google

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