I harvest squirrels every day I can during squirrel season. Their great protein and they’re one of the best game meats out there in my opinion. I got this squirrel right at the tail end of the season and When I started cleaning it I noticed something odd. Not only had it been shot by 2 other hunters with poor shot placement but it’s guts where a dark black color and it had a layer of fat on its lower belly I’ve never seen in a squirrel before. I decided to bury the squirrel so nothing else could eat it and it could become a part of the dirt because I didn’t feel safe eating it nor did I want to help spread a disease if that’s what this is. Thank you for accepting me into the forum as well🙏🙏if anyone knows what this could be please let me know so I can better prepare/handle the situation if it ever happens again.

Fat looking stuff is fat and mammary glands IMHO. Seen it in lots of different female game taken around the time they are about to have or have babies. If your squirrel was taken end of Winter season it would time right as that is why there is a break in squirrel season from March to April. Black in the stomach and intestines is likely related to what it has been eating. Husk off some Black Walnuts the squirrel had hidden away perhaps. But when it doubt, don't eat it.

Not a clue, but burying it was a good idea.

In my opinion - the fatty looking tissue is possibly an adhesion. If, in fact, the squirrel was shot previously - the resulting injury could have been the source of the adhesion. Not sure on the black organs though - weird.

Wow,

what did the liver look like?

With a name like Nasty Nate you gotta eat that!

Just kidding....that's odd. I've never cleaned a squirrel before but never seen that on any animal.

That's ridiculous. Burn it

Melanosis coli. Lots of causes.

I remember during deer season someone posted on one of the hunting pages on Facebook about the same thing but in a deer, he called the game warden and the warden came out and got samples to send off to a lab, he also have the hunter another tag so he could take another deer.

Another problem with rabbits dying in southern and eastern New Mexico. https://www.krqe.com/news/new-mexico/disease-blamed-for-wild-rabbit-deaths/

Hell, I'd have eaten it.

Pretty odd - think I might have called the game Warden or Wildlife Biologist to ask them.

How strange....

I'm with Sniper John. I don't see anything dark outside of the digestive tract, indicating that this is something being consumed.