Is it true what they say about squirels getting fat early and a hard winter?

Someone was telling me last night that you can tell when its going to be a hard winter when the squirrels start getting fat early in the season.





What you guys think?Is it true what they say about squirels getting fat early and a hard winter?
It's not the size of em guy's and lady's, it's how much they are putting away and hiding. This time of the year they go into their prime coats. Means their hair is getting thicker and they begin to look fatter. Some still have a batch of youngans to feed and until they are winged they want get fat either.Is it true what they say about squirels getting fat early and a hard winter?
Yep.





If the squirrels are getting fat early and the woolyworms don't have orange bands round them, it's going to be a long, cold winter.





Gonna be an awful winter down here in South Ga, I think. The pecans are producing earlier than they did last year, it's cooler outside (normally flippin hot still this time of the year), the squirrels are hoardin like crazy and I saw some woolyworms without orange bands.
While it's true they fatten up each summer when food is plentiful they also store acorns and other nuts for eating later. I don't think there is much truth to what you have heard. It sounds like an old wives tall to me..sort of like the old woolly worm getting an extra bit of hair in preparation for a worse than normal winter.
Stop and think. All the nuts are ripe and fall from the trees in sept-nov and the little critters eat and eat and eat till they almost bust. They store up for winter also by storing nuts too.....they also steal bird seed from feeders all over as well. If you listen to that......every winter would be bad.....because they do that every year.
i personally dont believe that, but only because the squirrels around here are ALWAYS fat thanks to the massive amount of bird feeders they continuously break into. we havent had a ';hard'; winter in quite a while but my dogs STILL get the chase pudgy squirrels.
That's a common old wives tale, but you know. Back when we had record highs a couple of years ago in Dec...the squirrels got real fat, real fast early on, and stayed that way. So much for that saying.
BS, squirrels don't know a hard winter coming from a hard cast .22 coming.
* Yes really it is.*~~