Watching these squirrels engage in combat, you might easily mistake them for the likes of Jackie Chan and Jet Li, performing gravity-defying martial arts moves.
Captured in a park, these squirrels exhibit their fighting prowess with incredible precision, delivering kicks and punches directly to their opponent’s face or belly.
At one point during their duel, both squirrels take a tumble, with one landing flat on its back.
These amusing photographs were taken by software engineer Aleksandr Khizgilov near the San Francisco Bay, his hometown. Aleksandr, aged 50, shared, “I don’t travel much, so I compensate by going out during lunchtime near my office with a camera to observe birds and ground squirrels.”
Capturing their combative moments requires a lot of patience, luck, and proper camera settings – factors that rarely align simultaneously. He added, “These images represent only a tiny fraction of the shots I take. Most are either blurred, out of focus, or simply mundane.”
“When the timing is perfect, it brings me joy and motivates me to capture even more flawlessly next time. Capturing squirrels in such intense combat is quite rare.”
So, these kung fu squirrels, with their airborne drop kicks and martial arts-like agility, provide a delightful spectacle that showcases the unexpected skills of nature’s acrobats.
