Somewhere up there in the trees, the squirrels must be laughing.

New Jersey hosted its first-ever “Squirrel Classic” hunting tournament on Saturday — and although the weather was fine, the skinning-and-field-dressing workshop well attended, and the animal activists shouted “Murderers!” from safely across the street, there was still one tricky hitch.

No squirrels.

The wiley critters are mostly dormant during the cold weather, and they wisely stayed away from the cross-fire hubbub of air rifle shooting and activist protesting unfolding on their turf, thanks to the Inskip Antlers Hunting Club in rural Winslow.

A measly three beady-eyed varmints were killed and weighed, said Inskip’s treasurer, Kevin Maffei.

“It’s not an overly great time if you want to kill an abundance of squirrels,” Maffei admitted.

“They’re not running around like you would think they would be.”

Still, everyone sallied forth, as scheduled, with the squirrely soiree.

Inside the club, “They taught how to field dress it,” Maffei said. “How to skin them.”

“Squirrel skin is pretty hard to get off. There’s a method to it, but it is a pain to skin them. I just don’t bother,” said Maffei, who’s more a deer hunter himself.

Then, lunch time. “They had a tray of squirrel meat. You braise it slow and low, and season it,” he said. “You can sear it. You can put it in a gravy or a tomato sauce.”

And if “Chicken of the Tree” wasn’t to one’s taste, “they also had moose chili,” he said. “And regular ol’ hot dogs.”

Meanwhile, outside, some 40 animal rights activists were going nuts over the idea of introducing children to shooting animals.

“They were screaming at little kids in the parking lot — ‘Murderer!’” event spokesman Cody McLaughlin said of the protesters.

Speaking of nuts, some of the squirrel-lovers’ signs hit a little below the belt.

“OH YOU MUST BE INBRED,” read one sign. “GOOD JOB ON RAISING FUTURE SERIAL KILLERS,” read another.

“There’s not enough gravy in the world,” one protester, Jay Lassiter, told The Post, scoffing at the hunters’ claims of actually eating squirrel meat. “There’s not enough marijuana in the world, either.”