Fact Check: Video of squirrel doing breathing exercises in Baba Ramdev's ashram is FALSE

Hyderabad: A video of a squirrel is going viral on the social media claiming that it lives in Baba Ramdev's ashram in Haridwar and by watching Baba Ramdev everyday doing yoga, it also started doing breathing exercises perfectly. In the video, we can see the grey squirrel standing on two feet and breathing heavily.

A squirrel living on a tree in Baba Ramdev's ashram in Haridwar has been watching the Yoga guru do Kapalbhati, the breathing exercise every day. And you won't believe, it has picked up the moves pretty well... via WA

Fact Check:

Firstly, the squirrel seen in the video is an Eastern Grey squirrel, which is found in the North American regions.

According to the article published in kids.nationalgeographic.com, Eastern Grey squirrels are the most commonly found squirrels in United States of America.

The grey squirrel is also found in UK, as it was introduced into the habitat in the 1800s.

Indian Palm Squirrel and Indian Giant Squirrel are the most commonly found squirrels in the Indian sub-continent.

So, the possibility of finding the squirrel seen in the viral video in Haridwar is very low. Even if the squirrel is found in Baba Ramdev's ashram, the breathing movement that the squirrel is doing is NOT breathing exercise.

Squirrels are intriguing creatures. They are surprisingly intelligent and very communicative. They communicate with each other and other species with squawk-like calls. They are quite vocal creatures. In some cases, squirrels even talk to predators, warning them to stay away. Although it often sounds like squirrels are chatting away, they don't have a language in the same way that humans do. Instead, research indicates that they are making instinctive noises that they can understand intuitively.

The agonistic and alarm behaviour in squirrels is complex and is usually called 'barking' in USA, where the squirrels display combination of actions like flicking of tails, making 'muk-muk' sounds etc.

We found various videos uploaded in the Youtube, in which we can see different types of squirrels making similar actions as that of squirrel in the viral video.

The squawking or barking movements made by the squirrel are natural movements that are made to signal anger or distress.

Therefore, the squirrel in the video is NOT doing breathing exercises and as this kind of squirrels are NOT found in Indian subcontinent. The possibility of finding such squirrels in Ramdev Baba's ashram is very low.

Hence, the above claim is FALSE.