On Nov. 10, 2024, a pair of images went viral on Reddit that depicted a squirrel holding a flower, appearing to smell it. "Lil guy was just enjoying his day until the paparazzi ruined it," one user commented. The post has received more than 43,000 upvotes as of this writing.
A photographer captures a moment of a squirrel smelling flowers
byu/WorldlyQuarter7155 ininterestingasfuck
Some Reddit users expressed doubts that the images were authentic. "AI? Hope not," one user wrote.
We looked into the claim and found that the images were real — meaning that they were not photoshopped or otherwise digitally altered. The full series of images shows multiple angles and moments before and after the squirrel appeared to smell the flower, proving that the squirrel was indeed alive and not glued to the flower.
Dick Van Duijn, a wildlife photographer based in the Netherlands, took the photos. The series is featured on his photography website (archived) as well as his Instagram account. Snopes reached out to him and will update this story if we hear back.
In an interview with Business Insider, Van Duijn shared that he traveled to Vienna, Austria, specifically to capture images of ground squirrels, a rodent of the squirrel family that burrows underground as opposed to living in trees like tree squirrels. It took him approximately two hours and 200 photos to capture the image in question.
"The moment the squirrel smelled the flower and planted his face in the flower, I knew this was the picture of a lifetime," he said.