Squirrel fishing

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A squirrel being successfully lifted
A squirrel being successfully lifted

Squirrel fishing is the sporting practice of "catching" squirrels and attempting to lift them into the air using a peanut tied to a string or fishing line, and optionally some kind of fishing pole.[1]

In most cases, squirrels playfully tug and grapple with the nuts, while the human participant skillfully angles with his or her quarry. A delicate approach is required in squirrel fishing. Anyone can pull a nut from the hands of a squirrel, but the adept "squirrel fisher" must hone his craft, maintaining balance between himself and the squirrel, and eventually rewarding the squirrel for his valiant competition by ceding the nut.

There has been some debate over where squirrel fishing originated. The practice was popularized either by Nikolas Gloy and Yasuhiro Endo, at the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, by Nicholas Middleton and Zmira Zilkha during their summer tenure at Middlebury College in Vermont, or by the Berkeley Squirrel Fisher's Club (BSF), an official student group at the University of California at Berkeley. BSF has been featured in several local periodicals.[2]

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