Baby red squirrels rescued after nest disaster

These squirrels had a traumatic start to life. The five-week-old kittens were tossed from their nest in Northumberland when the aftermath of Hurricane Katia struck Britain. Winds reached up to around 70mph in the north of England last week as the remnants of the weather system moved over the UK.



In what were believed to be the worst storms for 15 years, trees were downed, waves engulfed roads and masonry collapsed. The squirrels were found by a passer-by and taken to a vets' surgery, who passed them on to the Sanctuary Wildlife Care centre in Morpeth. Their mother has still not been found so workers are feeding the tiny animals goats' milk by hand every three hours.

The Sanctuary is a family-run, not-for-profit organisation which cares for unwanted and injured animals across the north of England. It was founded in 1993 by Kim Olson and her husband Allan Pettersson, who had studied wildlife management and worked in Tanzania.


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The centre now treats hundreds of injured or abandoned wildlife each year, with the aim of returning them to the wild. The red squirrel is native to Britain but numbers have dwindled as the American grey squirrel continues to dominate. There are only around 140,000 red squirrels left in the UK, compared to over 2.5 million greys.