These 5 squirrels got their tails knotted together – but they’re on the mend now

Five young squirrels are recovering from the ordeal of getting their tails tangled together.

The juveniles got themselves into a pickle when their tails got entwined with grasses and strips of plastic being used by their mum to make a nest.

Thankfully they were spotted by a friendly passing human and, with the help of the Wisconsin Humane Society, are being nursed back to full health.

After checking on the animals on Monday morning, advanced wildlife rehabilitator Crystal Sharlow-Schaefer said: “They are very active and vigorous, happily eating all that we’ve offered, including nuts, seeds and fruit.

“We’re still watching their tails for potential necrosis, but at this point, we hope and expect they will all make full recoveries.

“We can only imagine how relieved they must feel to be free of one another, and move independently. They are thrilled to be able to climb and jump, which juvenile squirrels need for proper development at their age.

“As a non-profit organisation, we’re so grateful to our donors for funding this life-saving care.”

Without intervention, the squirrels are likely to have lost their tails and probably their lives too.

In a post on the organisation’s Facebook page, the society explained how it worked to get the squirrels free.

“Our first step was to anaesthetise all five of them at the same time,” the post read. “With that accomplished, we began working on unravelling the ‘Gordian Knot’ (Google it) of tightly tangled tails and nest material.

“It was impossible to tell whose tail was whose, and we were increasingly concerned because all of them had suffered from varying degrees of tissue damage to their tails caused by circulatory impairment.

“Bit by bit we snipped away at the grass-and-plastic knot with scissors, being very careful to make sure we weren’t snipping anyone’s tail in the process. It took about 20 minutes to free the young squirrels.”