"Poor thing"... Squirrel bites into e-cigarette drawn by sweet fruity smell [Video]

[The Financial News] A video from the United Kingdom showing a squirrel with an e-cigarette in its mouth has gone viral online, drawing renewed attention to the dangers posed by e-cigarette waste.
The New York Post reported that controversy has grown after a video was posted on social media showing a gray squirrel sitting on a fence in the Brixton area of London, gripping an e-cigarette device with its front paws and appearing to chew on it.
Experts say there is a hidden reason behind this scene, which at first glance looks like the squirrel is "smoking" an e-cigarette. The real draw was not the nicotine, but the scent coming from the device.
Craig Shuttleworth, a wildlife expert at Bangor University in Wales, noted, "In the past, it was very rare to see squirrels carrying around discarded cigarette butts," and analyzed, "The squirrel likely mistook the fruity-scented e-cigarette for food and picked it up in its mouth."
He also stressed that this is not something to simply laugh off. As the squirrel gnaws on the device, it could ingest microplastics as well as residual nicotine and other chemicals inside the e-cigarette.
Shuttleworth emphasized, "In the wild, there is no natural exposure to nicotine, so it is not desirable for animals to come into contact with such chemicals."

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) described the footage as "an incident that shows just how dangerous discarded litter can be for wildlife" and urged, "Until there is a safe way to dispose of e-cigarette waste, users should not throw them away as trash but keep them safely stored."
The organization also pointed out that similar cases have been reported many times before, underscoring the risks posed by e-cigarette waste.
Evie Button, a science officer at the RSPCA, said, "We know this case is just the tip of the iceberg." She previously highlighted a bird in New Zealand that died after swallowing an e-cigarette device, and a case in Wales where a squirrel tried to bury an e-cigarette in the ground as if storing food.
Button added, "The harm caused by e-cigarette waste is not limited to wildlife," explaining, "Since 2017, there have been 680 reports of e-cigarette-related incidents involving pets, and 96% of those cases involved dogs."
y27k@fnnews.com Seo Yoon-kyung Reporter