There is no evidence that Chronic Wasting Disease has spread to squirrels, but just a few hundred yards from the zone boundary, Whitetail.com editor, John Miglautsch, was attacked by a slightly crazed gray squirrel.

We were hunting an hour or so west of Madison, WI. Yesterday we scared up a nice ten point bedded with a doe and a dark horned eight point but they are still roaming the spectacular hills, fields and draws. We saw about a dozen deer the first day. It was only 18 degrees the second morning. I had on my fox fur hat (blaze orange covered of course). I was set up on a dam at the head of a beautiful valley. There was only a slight breeze up the valley. I heard several different squirrels, some on the hillside to the west, some behind me to the east. After a while, I stopped turning around as they jumped through the leaves. Suddenly, I noticed a gray squirrel at the bottom of the damn. He scampered up, paused, looked up at me. I was sitting very still. He ran up and stopped right next to my left boot. I couldn't see him except for his bushy tail. I didn't really want him to run up my leg, so I moved my boot. He took off, leaping right up at my face. I must have flinched a bit, he made it on to my hat, his tail hit me in the face. One more good jump (off my hat) and he was gone.

His behavior was not characteristic of animals with CWD. However, it was pretty weird.

We saw over 40 deer in 2 and a half days of hunting. We got three does but no squirrels :). Perhaps next year we'll have to eradicate them too?

John <><