Wisconsin squirrels left in a bundle of hurt

Twine that squirrels were using to build a nest tangled five of their tails so tightly that they couldn't be unraveled and had to be killed, a state wildlife biologist said.

"Basically, they were all rear-end to rear-end, tied up that way," said Ron Lichtie of the Department of Natural Resources.

"With their squirming around and nursing and things like that, their tails can get interlocked or knotted up together."



Alice Dresen, 60, called the Department of Natural Resources Tuesday when she discovered the star-shaped ball of squirrels at the base of a maple tree in her backyard.

She got curious after hearing the screeching of a mother black squirrel, apparently trying to coach the entwined squirrels to walk after they fell out of the nest.

Lichtie took the squirrels to a nearby wildlife area Tuesday and tried to untie the tails but there wasn't any loose part to unravel, he said in a telephone interview from his La Crosse office.

"They were just too knotted up and two were very stressed out already. I decided the best thing to do humanely was to euthanize them all," he said. "The only other way was to remove the tails on the animals."

He then shot the squirrels with a .22-caliber pistol, he said.