Squirrels do sometimes carry rabies but not all squirrels are carrying rabies.
Most squirrels that you see don't have any rabies and the risk of getting rabies from a squirrel bite is also very low, especially in the areas where rabies is not common.
No person as of now and as far as we know has ever gotten rabies from a squirrel but it's slightly possible.
Rabies is mostly a concern in squirrels if the squirrels are acting abnormally when they bite someone.
The reason why squirrels run in front of cars is a result of a combination of instinct and also poor judgment of speed as well as distance.
A squirrels natural instinct is to zig zag to avoid their predators, like hawks, backfires on them when they are faced with the speed of a vehicle.
Squirrels also have side mounted eyes which also make it difficult for them to accurately judge the speed and the distance of any approaching cars.
Squirrels are hardwired to run in a zig zag pattern to evade their predators and running in a zig zag pattern works well against predators such as hawks and other aerial predators but is not effective against cars.
A squirrels eyes which are positioned o n the sides of their heads, gives the squirrel a wide field of vision, but also limits their ability to judge depth and speed accurately.
And squirrels often misjudge how quickly a vehicle or car is approaching them, which leads to the squirrel darting into the road when it's too late to actually safely cross.
Squirrels can also be easily distracted by other squirrels and food and cause them to run into the road without fully assessing the danger and when a squirrel sees a large and fast moving object like a car it might be triggered by a fear response and run in any random direction, which is often in the path of a vehicle.
The IQ of a squirrel is around 25 to 40, which is pretty comparable to the IQ of a 1 year old to 1.5 year old child.
Squirrels are actually pretty intelligent and smart and possess impressive spatial memory.
Squirrels are smart enough to solve complex problems to find food and can also demonstrate behaviors that indicate that they are also capable of adapting to new environments.
A notable study that was published in the Journal of Zoology, also found that squirrels can also differentiate among various nut species, food odors and even storage methods.
Squirrels are members of the family of Sciuridae, which is a family that includes small or medium sized rodents.
The squirrel family also includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels and flying squirrels.
Squirrels are also indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia and even Africa and they were also introduced by humans to Australia.
Some of the squirrels favorite foods are walnuts, acorns, hickory nuts and even Osage orange fruits.
Squirrels also will feed on wild tree nuts, nuts and tree buds once food becomes scarce later in wintertime.