There's one that's constantly at my back door asking for some food scraps or nuts, but I know it's really trying to proximity-sniff out my Wifi password.
Matthew Olearczyk, a program manager with the Electric Power Research Institute, explains that typically a squirrel will cause a blackout by scampering across electrical equipment and touching simultaneously both an energized component, like one of the cylindrical transformers at the top of a utility pole, and a grounded piece of equipment. The squirrel completes the circuit, generating an arc. There is an instantaneous flash of blue light. At its center is the squirrel, combusting.
Lol, I was just at a tour of the new underground power distribution building in Zürich. Squirrels were mentioned and this new underground building tries to prevent "squirrel incidents" in the future.
Due to ever increasing development, squirrels can no longer travel the nation by jumping between successive trees as their ancestors once did. Today it involves much more work and danger: crawling down, scampering across open ground, climbing back up, running the wires, and dealing with those high voltage pole pigs. Actually, squirrels have been mad as hell at us for many years now. Thus far they haven't overtaken us because (a) we've appeased them somewhat by tossing them peanuts and filling bird feeders with sunflower seed, and (b) they haven't quite mastered the "opposable thumb" thing just yet. But they are known for adaptability and persistence, and there are reports they are making major advances with (b) by secretly observing our finesse at eating chicken wings at outdoor picnics and festivals. Really, it's only a matter of who gets there first: squirrels and thumbs, dogs and doorknobs, cows and upright walking, or cats figuring out the internet backbone. We'll soon be paying homage to our new overlords, and they won't even be from an alien planet.
One of these brave agents chewed through some PBX equipment when I was in college, and that's how we found out that the phone system's failure mode was to emit a sustained, wraith-like shriek, very similar to the sound we students made as it woke everyone up at 2 AM.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 58.7 ms ] threadMatthew Olearczyk, a program manager with the Electric Power Research Institute, explains that typically a squirrel will cause a blackout by scampering across electrical equipment and touching simultaneously both an energized component, like one of the cylindrical transformers at the top of a utility pole, and a grounded piece of equipment. The squirrel completes the circuit, generating an arc. There is an instantaneous flash of blue light. At its center is the squirrel, combusting.
Some photos I took: https://goo.gl/photos/dLpTWm9m8Ggdirzn9
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=squirrel+obstac...