The squirrel is locally reputed to be a carnivore and has been dubbed the "vampire squirrel". According to forest-dwelling Dayak hunters, it attacks and kills deer to eat their stomach contents, liver and heart. The squirrel is said to achieve this by waiting on low branches, jumping on passing deer and biting their jugular veins to make them bleed to death. Once the deer dies, the squirrel eats the deer's internal organs. The hunters report occasionally finding deer disembowelled in this way and attribute them to "squirrel kills". It is also said to kill domestic chickens and eat their hearts and livers. Although this may seem far-fetched, the naturalist Edward Banks recorded in 1949 that the squirrel was "wary, difficult to observe and biting fiercely", and other species of squirrel are known to be active hunters of small vertebrates.