Rescued red squirrel being hand reared by Cumbrian rangers
Last updated at 13:40, Tuesday, 13 April 2010
A baby squirrel is being nurtured back to health by animal lovers after being found in a Cumbrian garden.
Five-week-old Charles the red squirrel kitten, named after the Prince of Wales who is patron of the national Red Squirrel Survival Trust, was found outside a converted barn in Great Ormside, near Appleby, by the house’s owners.
He was rescued by Jerry Moss, a squirrel ranger at Center Parcs Whinfell Forest site near Penrith, who took the mite home to his partner Sarah McNeil, who volunteers with the Penrith and District Red Squirrel Group.
Sarah said: “The theory is that a bird must have pulled his drey and it had fallen to the ground from a great height, when the person that owns the place came across it.
“At the moment Charles fits in the palm of your hand. He is about the size of a tennis ball when he is curled up.”
Now Charles is being kept in a woolly hat stuffed with pampas grass and leaves to recreate the warmth of his mother’s body, and fed on syringes full of milk at Sarah’s home near Hackthorpe.
He is being kept in an adapted rat cage, but as he gets older he will be moved outside into another specially designed cage to prepare him to be released into the wild.
And he isn’t the first baby squirrel to receive such treatment at Sarah’s hands.
She said: “The hat keeps them warm enough without them overheating, and over a little time they pull the front of the hat down like a little hatch. I seem to keep losing these hats to squirrels. He is just struggling around at the moment, but when he is old enough he will go out into the bigger pen, then when we are happy he is safe we will release him.”
Red squirrels have become an endangered species in Cumbria since the introduction of greys to the country, which carry the squirrel pox virus which proves deadly to reds.
The virus has recently claimed the lives of several squirrels around Cumbria, causing alarm to the groups which care for the animals.
For more information on the group, visit www.penrithredsquirrels.org.uk.
First published at 11:27, Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk
would it be possible to come and see Charlie next Friday 23rd as we will be Penrith on that day? Where are you in relation to Flusco Wood Caravan Park CA11 0JB
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What a great job you're doing - not only with lovely little Charlie - and would it be possible to buy some of your squirrel cards?
Thanks!
Posted by LJ Ranby on 24 April 2010 at 22:22