One of the best things about working in an elementary school is that there is never a shortage of drama and adventure...last week we had a particularly interesting one.
During recess, a couple third graders noticed some small creatures on the mulch hill under our big oak tree. Turns out, they were baby squirrels that had fallen out of their nest in the oak (fallen a long way, too I might add!). A couple of us teachers checked them out - when I saw them one was breathing and one wasn't - but eventually they both started breathing and twitching a bit. They were, however, definitely knocked out/shocked. The mother squirrel was watching all of this from her nest, but did not venture out to get her babes. One member of our faculty called animal rehabilitation and they told us to tack a box onto the tree trunk and put the babies in the box so the mother could get the babies without having to come all the way to the ground. Within two hours, both the babies were out of the box and back in the nest.
I didn't see the moving, but apparently it was pretty cool to see - the mom grabs the babies with her mouth around their muzzles and somehow carries them up...wild stuff. I took some pictures of the process - I hope you are as intrigued as I was - I had never seen a baby squirrel - what weird looking creatures!
Just so you know, there was much rejoicing at carpool time as all of the kiddos wanted to know the fate of "their babies." One fourth grader said to me, "Oh good, I have been so worried all day!"
baby number one
the box
the nest (look for brown spot upper right corner)
