It’s not just the Hollywood elite that get to be in your face and on camera these days. With modern smartphones, action-cams and social platforms like Instagram and YouTube, everyone is their own star. Not wanting to be left out – apparently – is this squirrel ...

Ground score.

YouTube user Viva Frei captured this squirrel's-eye view on a GoPro which was left nestled below a large tree in Montreal, Canada. After a quick inspection, the furry filmmaker snatched the camera and hastily retreated up a nearby tree – giving us a POV-experience of what it’s like to be a squirrel (in case you’ve ever wondered). 

While those that suffer from motion-sickness might find this video a bit difficult to watch, it does give us a nice look at how squirrels navigate the treetops (something that may be completely unfamiliar to those who haven't seen Disney's The Sword in the Stone).

The camera-thief here is a grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), a common tree-dwelling mammal that is found throughout eastern North America. Urban squirrels are accustomed to foraging for unusual food items, so it's likely that this amateur cinematographer was hoping that the camera might contain a meal. Grey squirrels will cache food in the autumn in a process called scatterhoarding, so this GoPro-owner can be thankful that his camera didn't end up buried in a squirrel hole somewhere.

Interestingly, there has been a bit of a kerfuffle over which animal owns this video (remember that monkey selfie?) but Frei explains that the squirrel is more talent than producer. 

"From an IP perspective, the squirrel 'shot' the video, but having put in the requisite effort and set-up, I still own the copyright," he wrote on YouTube. Sorry Mr. squirrel, better luck next time. 

Top header image: Robert Engberg, Flickr