Spaced-out frozen squirrel suddenly stops mid-snack in latest viral vid

Krasnoyarsk, Russia - A squirrel was captured on camera indulging in his favorite snack straight out of a man's hand. After a few nuts, the creature sudden pauses mid-feed, sitting with a stunned look on its face.

The squirrel first went for the snacks, then he went for the stares.
The squirrel first went for the snacks, then he went for the stares.  © Collage: Screenshots/YouTube/@ViralHog

In a video posted by ViralHog on YouTube, a Russian man is seen attracting an adorable squirrel with a handful of nuts. The fluffy rodent cheerfully grabs a snack and nibbles at it contently, but then it seems to suddenly stop eating and, indeed, moving altogether.

The man tries to snap it out of its trance by offering it more nuts, but the squirrel simply stares into space. After a while, the man gives the squirrel a little nudge and, still, the squirrel remains catatonic. With seemingly nothing to be done, the man gets increasingly creative.

He starts by pushing a nut up under the squirrel's nose, and continues by tucking a few treats under its arms, but nothing seems to be doing the trick. After waiting for a few minutes, the squirrel finally starts taking a few extra bites, stands up, and scurries off.

Why was the squirrel frozen?

Shockingly, the viral video has now managed to wrack up well over a million views. Having seen so much attention, many theories are circling.

Some users joked that the animal might have been going through an existential crisis, others suggested that the animal heard something move in the forest - freezing could have been a self-defense mechanism.

Others said that it was a simple system error: "Squirrel.exe has stopped responding. Try restarting the program."

Cover photo: Collage: Screenshots/YouTube/@ViralHog

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