Baby squirrel proves a real handful for animal rescuers
Tiny animal is blind and motherless
By David McKay
Published: 07/03/2011
A TINY red squirrel is giving animal rescuers in Aberdeenshire
one of their biggest challenges yet.
Motherless, helpless and blind, the baby squirrel was just three
weeks old when it was picked up by volunteers at the North-east
Wildlife and Animal and Rescue Centre (New Arc).
No one has heard of a squirrel so young surviving in captivity.
Now the team at Nether Auquhadlie, near Ellon, are carefully
monitoring the as yet unnamed creature as they nurse it back to
full health in the hope of reintroducing it to the wild in a
month.
Director Keith Marley said: "We are trying not to coddle it too
much, as we don't want the squirrel to think that we are its
parents.
"It is the youngest we have seen. Most of the squirrels that are
taken in by animal rescue centres tend to be closer to five or six
weeks."
The animal arrived at the centre after a worried resident at
Torphins called to report that it appeared to have been dropped by
its mother and was not moving.
Baby squirrels are blind until they are a month old and it only
opened its eyes for the first time on Thursday.
Mr Marley's centre is part of a network across the UK that
shares information on how to deal with animals that are found.
"We will be picking their brains as much as we can, but from
what I've heard so far, this squirrel will be something of a test
case as it is so young," he added.
The task of naming the creature will fall to pupils at the Alpha
residential school at Peterhead, where Mr Marley's wife and fellow
New Arc director, Pauline, works as an individual educator.
Anyone wishing to make a donation to the centre, which is a
registered charity, should contact Mr Marley on 07962 253867.
