Watch Mark Rober Build (Another) Crazy Maze for Squirrels

If you've ever put out a bird feeder, you know that birds aren't the only animals that enjoy tasty, freely-accessible seeds. Squirrels are adorable, but they're also ruthless scavengers who won't think twice about stealing a pile of delicious seeds from a family of hungry birds. Many bird feeders integrate features intended to thwart those fluffy-tailed bandits, but squirrels are wily and seem to be able to overcome those designs with ease. To give his neighborhood tree rats the ultimate challenge, Mark Rober has yet again designed an elaborate maze filled with obstacles that the squirrels must navigate to reach the ultimate nutty prize.

While this is a bit of a departure from Rober's normal style of project, it is just as entertaining as his usual work. To make this all possible, Rober converted his entire backyard into a huge obstacle course. At the end of the obstacle course is "Fort Knuts," which is full of walnuts. There are several obstacles arranged throughout the yard and Rober was careful to add deterrents to keep the squirrels from skipping parts of the course. If you're an animal lover, there is no need to worry about the wellbeing of the squirrels. Each room in the course contains a one-way exit door, so that any squirrel in the maze can easily escape and come back later to try again.

Most of the obstacles in the course are passive and don't contain any electronic trickery. Rober designed those to test the squirrels' agility and athletic prowess. But Rober couldn't help putting some of his trademark electronic wizardry into the course. For example, one of the final obstacles before the big prize is an Entrapment-inspired "laser room." Those "lasers" are actually thin plastic sticks that the squirrels must avoid, like Catherine Zeta-Jones in that famous scene. If a squirrel does touch a stick, it will push into a metal contact at the base. An Adafruit Feather 32u4 board with RFM69HCW Packet Radio senses that contact and triggers a pneumatic solenoid to close the laser room's door for one minute.

Rober highlights the squirrels' journey throughout the video, from their Ocean's Eleven-style planning to the final heist. As expected, the squirrels were eventually able to prevail and reach Fort Knuts. After turning the mechanism on the vault door, they received access to enough walnuts to finally retire after this one final job. If you like watching animals and silly contraptions, you can't miss this video.