The other day I started giving the local squirrels some whole nuts, in addition to the usual sunflower seeds.

While our squirrels gladly take the sunflower seeds, they don’t seem to think of them as something worth fighting over.

Shelled nuts however are a different story. When you start handing out whole walnuts, it’s as if you are handing out the squirrel equivalent of 20 dollar bills.

The other day the whole gang was on on the back porch and we were giving out walnuts and filberts.

The squirrels were shuttling back and forth, burying the nuts all over the place.

At some point Gracie and Bear showed up at the back door from opposite directions and it was on!

All I saw was a black and grey blur as the two squirrels tumbled over and over biting and growling.

In cases where the two animals are closely matched in status and in size the fight can be especially vicious, since neither squirrel wants to back down.

Bear and Gracie are two of our biggest female squirrels. They are each about 2 or 3 years old, in perfect health and they both strut around our backyard as though they own the place.

Basically, it was the clash of the squirrel titans!

I rushed out onto the deck and stomped my foot to break up the fight, but apparently not quickly enough because Bear was bleeding from a wound at the base of her tail as can be seen here.

She showed up the next day and seemed fine.