Now that ‘Selfie’ is the reigning word of the year and everyone from Kim Kardashian to President Obama are spending at least part of their week taking them, it appears, as a culture, we’ve pretty much accepted their inevitability.

I mean humans have accepted selfies. I said nothing about the animal kingdom.

If you lean in to take a selfie with a wild animal, no matter how cute it may be, don’t be too shocked when it absolutely hates your idea and decides to attack.

A tale of two photos:

That’s Brian Genest of Auburn, Maine. He snapped a pretty cool squirrel selfie and was promptly attacked. His mom took the latter shot.

Don’t worry about either man nor beast. Both were unharmed.

Genest is also aware that this series of events is much more funny than it is embarrassing, as he’s made the first photo his profile pic and the second one his cover photo on Facebook. Good on you, Brian.

Image via Wikimedia Commons