Terrified squirrels with tangled tails saved by the Wisconsin Wildlife Center

Five terrified squirrel babies nearly died after their tails tangled in grass, plastic and fur on each other.

The juvenile gray squirrels were rescued by veterinarians after being "desperately entangled" when their tails, along with long-stemmed grass strips and bits of plastic, turned into a huge knot.

Wildlife experts said the animals, found by an "inquiring seeker" in Wisconsin, could have lost their tails and "probably their lives" if they had not been saved quickly.

A spokesman for the Wisconsin Humane Society's Wildlife Rehabilitation Center said, "You can imagine how frightened and frightening this scared squirrel energy ball was.

"Our first step was to anesthetize all five at the same time. With that accomplished, we began working on the "Gordian knot" of tight tails and nesting material.

"It was impossible to know who the tail belonged to and we were more and more concerned because everyone had suffered varying degrees of tissue damage to the tail caused by circulatory impairment."

The wildlife protection center staff cut the plastic and plush knots with scissors while being careful not to cut anyone's tail.

After about 20 minutes of delicate cutting, the young rodents were free and quickly began to recover from anesthesia.

"One day later, they all have bright eyes and three of the five are" bushy tail, "said Friday the spokesman of the center.

"But we all have to watch them for a few days to see if the necrosis of the tail is caused by a decrease in blood flow."