When Amber Dubois spotted a squirrel during her lunch break in Boston, she couldn’t resist pulling out her phone. An avid animal lover, she adores the bushy-tailed creatures and tries to photograph them whenever she gets the chance.
She thought she had captured a perfect little squirrel moment — but when she showed the photo to a coworker, they both burst out laughing.
“I didn’t realize when I took the picture that it looked like a very long squirrel,” Dubois told The Dodo. “One of my coworkers pointed it out when I showed it to her, and we both had a good laugh.”
The image appears to show a single squirrel with a comically stretched-out body wrapped around a tree. In reality, it was two different squirrels on opposite sides of the trunk — one peeking out from the top, the other positioned below — lining up just right to create the illusion of one extra-long critter.
For Dubois, who grew up in Belgium and now lives in Dubai, squirrels are something truly special. Since her current home doesn’t have them, seeing the animals in the U.S. feels like a treat.
“I take pictures of squirrels whenever I see them because I think they’re so cute,” Dubois said. “People here probably don’t pay much attention to them because they see them every day, but to me, they’re kind of special.”
Over the years, she’s snapped countless animal photos — from koalas to snakes to even tarantulas — but this optical-illusion squirrel is her favorite so far.
“I have hundreds of not-so-great wildlife pictures in my camera,” she said. “This is the first one I thought was really worth sharing.”
A perfectly timed squirrel photo that looks like a brand-new species? That’s the kind of happy surprise that can brighten anyone’s lunch break.
