Amusing pictures show squirrel 'stockpiling' nuts, 'panic-buying' toilet paper
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The coronavirus pandemic has upended nearly every facet of day-to-day life, including causing people to panic-buy groceries and household goods. One photographer has taken hilarious photos of a squirrel replicating the panic-buying, using props he bought online.
Twenty-six-year-old Jeffrey Wang said he felt "bombarded" by the news over the pandemic, which has affected over 1.2 million people around the world and used props, including a trolley and some hazelnuts, to get the squirrel to play along, British news agency SWNS reports.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Red squirrel with a shopping trolley full of acorns in Carnie Woods, Aberdeenshire by photographer Jeffrey Wang. (Credit: SWNS)
“Every single day we’re being bombarded with virus news and all the impact it’s having with people stockpiling groceries," Wang said, adding he got lucky with these particular photos.
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“I got the trolley from eBay for about [$3.69] and I already had a 2 [kilogram] box of hazelnuts," Wang added. “I think it’s the same squirrel I’ve been familiar with, it likes hazelnuts the most. I know if I leave them out it’ll come running."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I started taking pictures of squirrels last year and that’s the first time I’ve used props," the amateur photographer explained. “Usually I just take pictures of squirrels naturally doing their own thing, but that was just an idea I had."
Red squirrel with a shopping trolley full of acorns in Carnie Woods, Aberdeenshire by photographer Jeffrey Wang. (Credit: SWNS)
Wang said he was able to get within 10 feet of the squirrel before he snapped the images. “I know a spot that particular squirrel roams and I’ll go along, leave them and in about half-an-hour it’ll come and go and each time I’ll move closer," he said. “It gets comfortable with me being around."
He continued: “It tends to approach from the same direction each time and I used it to my advantage and angled the trolley in the direction it was coming from - I wanted it to look like it was pushing the trolley," he continued. "The toilet roll was the harder one. With the trolley one it was easier for it to see the nuts, but within the toilet roll it can’t see it, so I put the nuts on the ground next to the loo roll and it took one at a time.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The woodland animal is also seen trying to fight another shopper (an Andrex puppy-style cuddly toy) for what appears to be the last toilet roll! (Credit: SWNS)
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Even though luck is a factor in these photos, Wang said he was happy with how they came out, nonetheless.
“I was really happy with the trolley ones, but I think I was quite limited with what I could do with the loo rolls," Wang said. “I wanted to make it look like it was fighting aggressively for it but I’m not sure how I could’ve achieved that. Maybe it’s something I could try again in the future.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}(Credit: SWNS)
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As of Monday morning, more than 1.29 million coronavirus cases have been diagnosed worldwide, more than 347,000 of which are in the U.S., the most impacted country on the planet.