By Daily Mail Reporter


Ravenous rodent: The grey squirrel in Morro Rock Park, California just can't say no to a snack from visitors


Despite living in image conscious California, this is one resident who's throwing caution to the wind.

The grey squirrel has ballooned to twice its normal size after tourists repeatedly fed it nuts in the Morro Rock State Preserve.

Marina van der Linden, a software engineer, captured the chubby creature on camera during a visit to the park.


The 46-year-old, from Los Angeles, said: 'I had been in the park taking photos but couldn't get any clear pictures because it was so foggy.

'I got out a bag of peanuts and suddenly I saw a family of squirrels. It was hilarious because they were all quite big but there was one that was enormous.

'I concentrated on it since it was the fattest of them all but it kept hiding between the rocks.

'She was so big and I think it's because they get well fed by tourists.

'When it finally sat still out in the open, I discovered that I was too close and I could not fit the entire squirrel in the camera's viewfinder.

'It was so big that I had to walk backwards in order to get her in frame.

'She finally looked directly at me and I got the one good shot before she ran off.'

She added: 'The next day I went to photograph her again but not a single squirrel was to be seen.

'I saw one with the same pattern on her head but she ran off before she could be photographed. I think she was self-conscious about her weight.'



source:dailymail