Squirrel king

A squirrel king is a bunch of squirrels whose tails have tangled together, making them unable to self-separate.[1] It is similar to a phenomenon recorded in rats, the rat king, of rats with tails tangled together.[2] The squirrels that become tangled are nest-mates (ie. siblings), whose tails become knotted together. It may occur with the assistance of the nesting materials, also becoming part of the knot, as a sort of binder. Or, tree sap may glue the tangled tails together. If the squirrels are not separated, they will invariably die, making this a lethal condition.[3][4] Unlike the rat king, the squirrel king is not found in medieval European literature.[5]

For the 1995 video game, see Squirrel King.

List of naturally occurring incidents
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
occurrence Amount Location Country Description
September 1989 4 Easton, Pennsylvania United States of America They were severely injured and euthanized.[5]
1991 5 Baltimore, Maryland United States of America They were tangled and glued together by tree sap. They were successfully separated. Of the 5, 2 were albino squirrels.[5]
July 1997 5 Brantford, Ontario Canada They were tangled and glued together by tree sap. They were successfully separated.[5]
June 2013 6 Regina, Saskatchewan Canada They were tangled and glued together by tree sap. They were successfully separated alive.[4][6][7]
26 August 2013 5 Michigan City, Indiana United States of America Babies were almost euthanized after initlal failures at separation. The day after disentanglement they returned to their mother.[8]
November 2014 3 Maryland United States of America Glued together by tree sap.[9]
29 April 2016 3 Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania United States of America Juveniles were successfully untangled.[10]
May 2016 5 Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada Babies were successfully separated.[11]
21 May 2017 4 Bangor, Maine United States of America Juveniles were successfully separated, then released that day to reunite with their mother.[12]
mid-May 2018 6 Elkhorn, Nebraska United States of America 8-week-olds were successfully untangled, and all lived.[13]
summer 2018 4 Nova Scotia Canada By the time the juveniles were discovered, 3 had died. To separate them, the tail of the survivor had to be amputated.[14]
mid-September 2018 4 Loveland, Colorado United States of America Babies were successfully separated at the Larimer Humane Society.[15]
23 September 2018 3 Boulder, Colorado United States of America They were successfully untangled.[16]
September 2018 5 Wisconsin United States of America They were successfully untangled.[1]
May 2019 4 Stockton on Tees, County Durham, England United Kingdom Babies were successfully separated.[17]
May 2019 4 Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, England United Kingdom Babies were successfully separated.[18]
19 September 2019 4 Beacon Falls, Connecticut United States of America Babies were successfully separated, however, part of 1 tail needed to be amputated.[19]

Unnatural incidents

There have been incidents of animal cruelty or taxidermic artwork, where humans tied the tails of squirrels together, making something resembling the natural squirrel king.

Incidents of animal cruelty
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
  • On 19 September 2019, 4 squirrels were found knotted together and tied up, on railroad tracks in Berlin, Connecticut, USA. They survived to be separated, but needed some amputation. In order to tie them up, the person who performed the incident had to break their tails.[20][21]
gollark: In 50 years we'll probably still just have a ceremonial Brexit-related thing go on when parliament opens.
gollark: It costs more than a small fan though.
gollark: You can get a passive cooling heatsink *case*.
gollark: I think its main problem, generally speaking, is just the bad IO.
gollark: It has *actual* gigabit now, USB 3.0 (though I think still somewhat bandwidth-limited), and a much better CPU than the RPi3B+.

References
  1. Katherine Hignett (17 September 2018). "Squirrel King: Five Creatures Tied Together by Their Own Tails Discovered in Wisconsin". Newsweek.
  2. Lucas Reilly (24 October 2017). "An (Almost) Comprehensive History of Rat Kings". Mental Floss.
  3. Jaime Allen (21 September 2018). "What a Tangled Web a Few Squirrels' Tails Can Weave". ? How Stuff Works. InfoSpace Holdings.
  4. "Tangled Squirrels Rescued By Regina Animal Clinic (PHOTOS)". The Huffington Post Canada. 13 June 2013.
  5. Bob Rickard, John Michell (2007). The Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena. Penguin. p. 418. ISBN 9781405384568.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  6. Kaushik Patowary (15 February 2018). "Rat King: The Mysterious Conjoined Creature". Amusing Planet.
  7. Emma Flint (13 June 2013). "Handling A Squirrel King Situation". The Inquisitr.
  8. Stan Maddux (28 August 2013). "Baby squirrels rescued after tails' tangled, tied". NWI Times. Munster, Indiana, USA.
  9. Angie Barnes. "Man Finds Real Life 'Rat King' In His Yard When These Squirrels Get Their Tails Tangled". Honest to Paws.
  10. "WATCH: Woman Helps Three Squirrels Tangled By Their Tails". CBS 2 Pittsburgh. 5 May 2016.
  11. CBC News (23 May 2016). "5 tangled squirrels rescued by Winnipeg man". CBC.
  12. Aislinn Sarnacki (22 May 2017). "Four baby squirrels with tails tangled together rescued by Bangor men". Bangor Daily News.
  13. Michael O’Connor (18 May 2018). "How a wildlife expert rescued 6 baby squirrels in Elkhorn whose tails were knotted together". Omaha World-Herald.
  14. "Eagle Has Flown". Hope for Wildlife. Season 8. Episode 8. 25 January 2019.
  15. Shawn Patrick (19 September 2018). "Four Squirrels Got Their Tails Tangled in Colorado". Y96.9 iHeart Radio.
  16. Mitchell Byars (25 September 2018). "Boulder police rescue trio of squirrels with tangled tails". The Denver Post.
  17. Leanne Plumtree (10 May 2019). "Baby squirrels found in tall tail tangle". RSPCA News. Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (England and Wales).
  18. Carolyn McGinn (13 May 2019). "A member of the public came to the aid of the stuck squirrels". Vets-Now.com.
  19. "Baby Squirrels Found With Tails Tied Together: Animal Hospital". NBC 10 Boston. 20 September 2019.
  20. Stephen Sorace (22 September 2019). "Baby squirrels found on Connecticut train tracks with tails 'braided' together in suspected animal abuse". Fox News.
  21. Scottie Andrew (23 September 2019). "Four baby squirrels were found with their tails braided together. Vets think it could be animal abuse". CNN.

Further reading
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