6 Squirrels Get Tails Tangled In ‘Crazy Phenomenon’

ELKHORN, NE — Six young squirrels in Nebraska were acting squirrelly — come on, it’s what they do — and got tied up in quite a mess as they raced up and down a pine tree. Their tails became entangled in the sap that acted like glue. They’re OK now, but it took a wildlife rehabilitation expert about an hour to separate them.

Some of the squirrels may have to go through surgery to remove parts of their tails that were damaged. Their predicament wasn’t as unusual as you might think — Nebraska Wildlife Rehab executive director Laura Stastny says her group gets similar calls once or twice a year, and tree sap is often the culprit. Sometimes a piece of string or twine gets entangled in squirrel nests, according to Stastny.

Elkhorn resident Craig Luttman heard the squirrels screeching outside his home Monday and went out to investigate. He found them “moving as a unit,” the Nebraska Humane Society said on its Facebook page, calling it “a crazy phenomenon.”

“It was like a tug of war,” Luttman told the Omaha World Herald. “All were going in different directions.”

Luttman called the Nebraska Humane Society, which in turn notified Stastny’s group. They likely would have died of starvation or to a predator without intervention, she said.

The detangling process was similar to unknotting a ball of twine, Stastny told the World Herald. The squirrels are about eight weeks old and will be released back to the wild once they’re rehabilitated.

For more evidence such perplexing situations aren’t all that uncommon, consider this story:

Last year, a man in Bangor, Maine, found four gray squirrels with their tails knotted together. Andrew Day described the collective of squirrels as a “creepy squirrel pinwheel” to The Bangor Daily News.

“It was like a giant dreadlock,” Day said of their tails, which were intertwined with straw, twigs and some plastic.

Because the incident happened on a Sunday, the folks who normally take care of such things weren’t able to respond, so Day took it upon himself to separate them.

“I got some scissors and I trimmed tail hair off the squirrels for about an hour and a half,” Day said. “It was quite the operation. I’m happy to report they were fine.”

For a look at how the Nebraska squirrels looked all tangled up, check out Luttman’s photos posted by the Nebraska Humane Society.

Lead file photo via Shutterstock / VOJTa Herout