Got milk? Charles is being looked after by Penrith and District Red Squirrel GroupLike Squirrel Nutkin, who escaped from an owl in Beatrix Potter’s much loved story, five-week-old Charles is lucky to be alive.
During bad weather last week, his nest, or drey, fell out of a tree, leaving the little red squirrel alone, at the mercy of predators and exposed to the elements.
Only the sharp eyesight of a member of the public saved him from death. They spotted him in a garden at Great Ormside in Cumbria and handed him to the Penrith and District Red Squirrel Group
One of only about 150,000 red squirrels left in Britain, Charles is now being hand-reared by Sarah McNeil, who runs the charity.
She named the squirrel kitten – as the young are correctly known – after the Prince of Wales, a keen red squirrel conservationist whose garden on the Balmoral estate in Scotland is home to scores of the animals.
Charles currently lives in a 4ft by 3ft rat cage in a room in Miss McNeil’s house. The cage contains moss, leaves and pampas grass to imitate a drey.
Are you nuts: The nest, or drey, in which Charles lived was blown from a tree during bad weatherLike squirrel kittens in the wild, he sleeps most of the day and night. But he lives in a fleece hat to replicate the warmth of his mother’s body. In about a month, Charles will move to a bigger pen 10ft tall, 30ft long and 5ft wide.
Miss McNeil said: ‘Red squirrels build their dreys out of twigs, moss, leaves and anything else they can find, such as string. Dreys are usually the size and shape of a football.
‘We don’t know what happened to Charles’s family but I decided to call him Charles because the Prince had written us a letter on the day he was found, so it seemed appropriate.
‘Orphan Charles is fine. He’s pretty strong. He’s cosy and warm and his eyes have recently opened. I’m handrearing him on a puppy or kitten’s milk called Lactol.’
Comfortable: Charles would have been vulnerable to predators after his home was wreckedThe milk, containing high levels of protein and fat, comes in powder form and is mixed with warm water and fed to Charles through a 2ml syringe.
‘I feed little and often, about every two hours. Too much milk in one sitting could kill him. In the wild, his mother would feed him her milk until he was about eight weeks old and then he’d start to forage, so soon I’ll start putting bits of broken nuts into the cage to get him used to solid food
TLC: Penrith and District Red Squirrel Group hope to return Charles to the wild‘He’ll pick up the nuts by instinct but I’ll keep feeding him the milk via the syringe for another six weeks or so to keep his strength up. Within three months, we hope to release him into local woodland.’
Red squirrels can live for seven years in the wild, feeding mainly on pine cones and nuts.
Through its network of 150 volunteers, the charity protects red squirrels and conserves their natural woodland habitat by controlling the dominant grey squirrel population over an area of 500 square miles.
The number of red squirrels has declined so gravely since the Forties that it is now classified as an endangered species and is protected.
The reason for the decline is not yet fully understood but the ever expanding number of grey squirrels – there are now at least three million in Britain – and the increase in squirrel pox are thought by experts to be the likeliest causes.
Miss McNeil said: ‘Grey squirrels were introduced in the 19th Century and have become pretty much rampant, whereas reds are native to Britain.
‘Greys are more aggressive and hundreds of them are shot in Cumbria every year to protect the reds. Greys are also immune carriers of the squirrel pox which can kill the reds very quickly, so it’s vital that we keep the two separate.’
source: dailymail
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