Former NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer and YouTuber Mike Rober designed a complicated obstacle course to keep the pesky critters from stealing bird seed. However, they rose to the challenge and their alacrity impressed him…and inspired him.
Rober could have designed his own bird feeder effectively keeping the fuzzy-tailed creatures away, but he had a different plan in mind.
The former engineer spent his quarantine designing a “ninja warrior”-esque obstacle course that he hoped a devious squirrel would struggle to get through. The obstacle course had everything — trap doors, mazes, rope bridges, a ladder bridge, and more.
Rober initially thought his creation was going to be a challenge for his backyard visitors. However, the acrobatic creatures found the obstacle course easy. Even some of the more challenging parts, such as the ladder bridge, were eventually conquered by the wily brigands. After a few attempts, they figured out the best way to climb over it.
“Unless you’ve spent a lot of time trying to practice that one on your own there’s no way even the most athletic person can just step up and win that one,” Rober pointed out in his YouTube video. “I think it’s telling that the parkour masters of the animal kingdom couldn’t even do it and just jumped the whole thing.”
Ultimately, the only way to keep the squirrels from conquering the obstacle course was an oiled-up pole that made them slip and slide their way down. The slicked-up surface was the squirrel’s kryptonite.
Unless you want to grease up poles every day, it’s safe to say you’ll drive yourself nuts keeping squirrels from your bird feeder. We reached out to Rober for his best tips for keeping squirrels away from your feeders but received no response before publication. We will be sure to be update this article should that change.
