The squirrel-in-picture vacation photo that started the whole squirrel crasher craze

This is the accidental vacation photo that started the whole “squirrel crasher” craze. The true story of the squirrel-in-picture incident is that the happy couple you see in the photo – Melissa and Jackson Brandts – were vacationing in Banff, and stopped to take a self-portrait in the spectacular setting of Lake Minnewanka.

As the self-timer on their camera ticked down, a curious golden-mantled ground squirrel (one of seemingly millions of the cute critters that frolic around Banff!) popped out of its hole to check out the camera sounds. The digital cam re-focused on the squirrel, and bam! A viral Internet phenomenon was born

This all actually happened in May 2009, but the Brandts didn’t get around to publicizing their accidental stroke of brilliance until August, when Melissa Brandts submitted the photo to National Geographic’s Photo of the Day feature. Nat Geo loved the photo, gave it a lot of play, and within hours, the whole world was squirrel crazy.