People Can’t Get Enough Of This Guy’s Realistic Squirrel Warriors

If squirrels ever organize for an uprising against humanity, chances are Bob McEachern gave them the idea.

The Montana artist and taxidermist is making a career out of arming squirrels for battle — decked out in buckskin, they're caught mid-action with longbows, spears, rifles and other tools of combat gripped in their tiny paws.

The only saving grace is they’re already dead.

McEachern’s elaborate and unique Squirrel Warriors are so fierce, detailed and oddly convincing that, were they alive, it’s easy to believe they’d win any final showdown.

And they’re in demand.

If you want to get your hands on one of McEachern’s Squirrel Warriors, you’ll need to pounce quickly.

These days, his unique designs sell in a matter of minutes, if not seconds, though it recently took all of three hours for a $2,800 piece to sell.

Demand for Squirrel Warriors creations — taxidermy squirrels donning buckskin while out hunting in the wilds — is so hot that McEachern recently switched up how he sells the art pieces.

Now he alerts subscribers to the Squirrel Warriors newsletter and his 52,000-plus Instagram followers when new pieces, that sell for $750 and up, will be available.

“I’m really, really surprised by how popular they’ve gotten,” said McEachern, who is based in Helena. “There’s something going on with these, something deeper, that strikes some chord with people that makes them spend a lot of money on stuffed squirrels.”

Squirrels Gone Viral

McEachern is aware how lucky he is. Less than two years after going all-in on creating his squirrels-as-survivalists art, an idea that had gnawed away at him for years, McEachern was starting to feel defeated by late 2022.

He found early success selling the squirrels at art and craft fairs throughout Montana, but finding customers that way proved time-consuming and taxing. And he wasn’t earning enough money.

One night, McEachern turned to his wife, who had encouraged him to chase this dream full-time in 2021 when he was at a crossroads work-wise.

“I said to her, ‘I don’t know, I might have to pull the plug on this,’” he recalled.

But he decided to instead plug a new design that he’d just completed by uploading a video to the Squirrel Warriors Instagram account. That piece — “The Rabbit Rider” —- depicted a squirrel shooting a bow while riding atop a rabbit.

“Literally, the very next day everything changed,” he said.

That’s because McEachern benefitted from one of those rare, zeitgeist moments: The video went viral, partly because people shared it on TikTok.

“It started blowing up, and here this video is going through the roof and now it’s up to 1 million views,” McEachern said.

Emails were pouring in, the phone was ringing off the hook and, within days, he had orders to keep him busy for more than a year.

All the hard work that McEachern had put into creating unique pieces that honor primitive skills finally started to pay off and Squirrel Warriors survived.

“I’m really, really damn lucky to make any money in art. It’s hard to do,” he said.

Squirrel Philosophy

That viral moment more than two years ago hasn’t proven fleeting as people are eager to welcome these little rodents into their homes.

“Squirrels are beloved because they’re busy preparing all the time, and they’re little characters to begin with,” McEachern said.

There’s also a narrative about his art that McEachern believes must speak to people.

It might be that squirrels are relatable because of their anthropomorphic qualities — such as their hand-like paws — or because people see themselves in the personification of heroes and survivalists.

Understanding why his art resonates with buyers probably doesn’t matter — “if they sell, they sell” —- but McEachern said he’s more than happy to talk with someone about what makes the squirrels so captivating, when given the opportunity.

“Otherwise, I’m probably just annoying people,” McEachern said. “A little too intense on the squirrel philosophy, Bob.”

Idyllic Artist Mentality

Creating about 60 pieces each year is a very involved process, and McEachern is typically working on different stages of several designs simultaneously.

While he’s revised his process as has learned new tricks and techniques, an important aspect is that each design must reflect the idea that the squirrels gathered all of the items to arm themselves from the forest.

And the art forms inside of the taxidermy squirrels are very important to creating the “magic” of the designs, McEachern said. “I have to create a moment of tension in that movement so it looks like they’re caught mid-act.”

McEachern’s art training also comes in handy: He majored in art at college and has worked in other mediums, including sculpture and carving, while he also studied geometry and anatomy.

To source everything he needs, McEachern said he spends a lot of time walking around the woods with his dog.

While he does most of the hunting — including for squirrels, rabbits, ruffed and blue grouse, and deer — friends have also helped out, and occasionally he gets a call to help deal with some problematic squirrels.

In addition to taxidermy, McEachern has learned other skills, like how to brain-tan deer hides and sew with sinew, to give the clothing a distinctive look he couldn’t replicate any other way. He also incorporates other natural materials into the designs like porcupine quills, turkey feathers and sticks.

Customers may not care that McEachern scrapes a deer hide and softens it the same way people thousands of years ago did, but he said it’s important to him to be authentic to primitive techniques.

Likewise, he’s resisted the temptation to increase production — either by hiring someone to help or by streamlining his processes — even though he knows that if he created more designs each month, he wouldn’t have trouble selling them.

“I kind-of like to keep the supply low and the demand high,” McEachern said. “I still have a little bit of the idyllic artist mentality in me.”

The First Woodland Warrior

While teaching himself taxidermy, McEachern created the first woodland warrior squirrel, and he said his family got a kick out of it. The idea for Squirrel Warriors, he said, never left him even as he worked normal 9-to-5 jobs.

Nearly four years since he went all-in on Squirrel Warriors, McEachern now has a number of bread-and-butter designs he creates because they are reliable sellers, though he occasionally takes custom orders and likes to mix in new ideas.

“It’s more for my sake than anything,” he said.

He’s created cowboy, fly fishing, Bob Ross, Jedi and princess warrior squirrels, among others.

“The Rabbit Rider” holds a special place for McEachern because it changed the trajectory of his career, but he said “The Seeker” is his favorite.

The design shows a squirrel wearing leather, furs and a crossbow while holding a piece of cattail that’s a glowing torch.

“He’s looking for something,“ McEachern said. “There’s a real story there.”

The Squirrel Business

Though rare, McEachern said he occasionally gets comments from people on Instagram who oppose his animal-centric art, and he had one longer dialogue with someone from a craft fair who questioned the ethics of it all.

McEachern said he welcomes those conversations because there’s an opportunity to learn. He’s also asked frequently whether he eats a lot of squirrel meat, and the answer is no.

“I’m killing a lot of critters, it’s not a small thing,” McEachern said. “It is something worth thinking about.”

Still, the care the self-described mountain man puts into honoring long-held traditions with art that’s tangible and symbolic has resonated with a broader audience than he expected.

Florida and California lead in sales, though if a buyer is close enough, McEachern might hand-deliver them, as he did with a buyer in Wyoming who bought five designs.

Even if people miss out when the squirrels go up for sale, there are other ways to get in on the Squirrel Warrior-mania. McEachern sells “quite a bit” of other merchandise, including calendars, clothing and mugs.

And his wife, he said, has helped tremendously with running the business. “She gets an enormous amount of credit.”

Like any creative, McEachern sometimes struggles with working when he doesn’t feel inspired. But he doesn’t take for granted that he’s able to earn an income as an artist, doing what he loves, and continues to be fascinated that the squirrels are so popular.

But if demand were to slow, the artist might find time to return to another fun project: A book.

“I’ve learned more about pine squirrels than any human being is supposed to,” McEachern said.