In what has to rank as among the most interesting wildlife images captured on a college campus, two squirrels are engaged in what looks like martial arts combat at Seminole State University in Florida.

Amateur photographer Ian Baker was fortunate to have been carrying his camera — a Rebel T2i — when the skirmish broke last week in early evening, as Baker was walking to a lecture.

“They were feeding on something and then they started fighting,” said Baker, 18, whose image appeared this week in the Orlando Sentinel, above a “Ninja Squirrels” caption. “The lighting was good so I just started shooting. I didn’t realize if they were in focus until I got home.”

Baker was shooting in high-contrast black-and-white, in a manual-focus setting. He said photography is only a hobby, but perhaps it should become his major.

Wrote the Sentinel’s Jacob Langston, a photojournalist: “I did not take the squirrel photograph but I wish I took that photograph. I would put that photograph in my portfolio.

“Photographers like to joke about the photo Gods looking down upon us when a good photograph comes together. The photo Gods definitely smiled down on Ian.”

– Image is courtesy of Ian Baker

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