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Yes, squirrels really are extra fat this year, as they keep foraging, feasting and storing calories at a time when we usually have snow and frozen ground.

“What a year for fat squirrels! Have you seen some of these guys? They’re colossal,” marvelled Dan Brunton, a naturalist and environmental consultant in Ottawa.

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“I called my son down to see the woodchuck in the back yard, and he said, ‘What woodchuck?’ ” Brunton was messing around. It was a squirrel.

“But really, I think squirrels are obese this year.”

Brunton doesn’t mean they’re unhealthy. The extra fat will wear off over the winter, and until then it will give individual squirrels a better chance of survival, he said.

“If it’s really, really cold, squirrels won’t do much. They just snooze out for three or four days. Well, they’re using up energy to do that. So it’s really to their advantage to bulk up.

“But I don’t know what it is about this year. It’s really comically noticeable.