Six baby squirrels in Elkhorn , Nebraska , had to be untangle by local animate being control officers after they were expose wrestle in a knot of tails on Monday .
As flaky as it sound , rodents actually get tied togethersemi - regularly .
The phenomenon appears when squirrels copse against chunk of fiendishly sticky tree sap and then slumber in closely tamp down nests , bum curled together . Their highly flexible process can also get intertwined with pieces of drivel .
Similar clusters have been reported in European rats since the 1500s , and because humans are unearthly , these “ rat kings”took on a quasi - fabulous status . In German folklore , sightings of the tangled rats were say to foretell spoiled luck , and multitude throughout Europe scatter the musical theme that the immobilized mathematical group outlive because other dirty dog brought them food , hence the purple designation .
The macabre pastime was so fervent that calculate from the 18thand 19thcenturies tell of rat king specimens that were slaughtered and troop down public streets , or bear on and put on display in museums . Some historians even hypothesize that defrauder consume to creating imitation rat kings so as to display them at fairs and freak shows .
But thankfully for the latest “ squirrel king ” , a good turn of humans now view helplessly knot animalsas a humane emergencymore than a possibly profitable novelty . According to theOmaha World - Herald , the six - membered assemblage was spotted clamoring in a tree diagram outside the home of Craig Luttman .
“ It was like a tug of warfare , ” Luttman tell the newspaper . “ All were going in unlike directions . ”
Concerned , Luttman ring the Nebraska Humane Society , who bring in Laura Stastny , executive director of Nebraska Wildlife Rehab and experient squirrel detangler . Apparently , squirrel king happen once or twice a year in the Elkhorn sphere alone .
First , Stastny calmed the squirrels with a mild painkiller and covered them with a cloth . She then develop to work trimming the viscous fur and picking aside the ball of tails . The whole process is say to have taken an hour .
The squirrels are now doing well , though several will demand surgical procedure to cut off parts of their tails that were irreparably harmed .
