How a Wildlife Center Untangled Five Squirrels' Tails

Five juvenile gray squirrels in Wisconsin found themselves in a hairy situation recently. As The Guardian reports, bits of plastic and grass from their mother's nest got caught in their tails. Then the five tails became entangled, forming one solid knot.

This could have been a fatal situation had it not been for a "caring finder" who happened upon the squirrels and brought them to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre at the Wisconsin Humane Society in Milwaukee.

"You can imagine how wiggly and unruly (and nippy!) this frightened, distressed ball of squirrelly energy was, so our first step was to anesthetize all five of them at the same time," the rehabilitation center wrote in a Facebook post on September 14. "With that accomplished, we began working on unraveling the 'Gordian Knot' (Google it) of tightly tangled tails and nest material." (For the record, a Gordian knot refers to a difficult problem and stems from a legend involving Alexander the Great.)

Next, they used scissors to carefully cut away the plastic and grass while taking care not to snip their tails, which had already sustained tissue damage due to the blood supply being cut off. After about 20 minutes, they were finally freed. Now, the squirrels have fully recovered and are "very active and vigorous." Staff at the center are still watching for signs of tail necrosis—the death of cells and tissue—but otherwise, the fur babies are expected to make a full recovery.

Tangled tails are not uncommon in the animal kingdom. A group of rats with entangled tails is called a "rat king," and the phenomenon has been reported since at least the mid-16th century. There's no equivalent term for when this happens to squirrels, although it does occur from time to time.

[h/t The Guardian]