Thursday 15 September 2022 10:11 PM Baby squirrels are falling out of their nests in search of relief during the ... trends now
Wildlife hospitals in the Bay Area were recently flooded with baby squirrels who plummeted out of their nests in search of relief from the scorching heatwave.
A squirrel nest is built to contain heat, so that baby squirrels are warm on chilly nights, but nests get incredibly hot when temperatures soar.
When baby squirrels try to crawl away, they topple out of the nest and onto the over-heated ground. The squirrels, which usually spend the first four months of their lives in a nest, end up injuring themselves.
'In addition to the usual injuries we see in fallen baby squirrels (broken teeth and split lips being the most common -- baby squirrels have large heads, so they nearly always land face-first!), our medical staff needed to address the symptoms of hyperthermia in the baby squirrels and all the patients we admitted that week,' Alison Hermance, director of communications for WildCare in San Rafael, told DailyMail.com via email.
Wildlife hospitals in the Bay Area, such as WildCare in San Rafael (above), were recently flooded with baby squirrels who plummeted out of their nests in search of relief from the scorching heatwave
When baby squirrels try to crawl away, they topple out of the nest and onto the over-heated ground. The squirrels, which usually spend the first four months of their lives in a nest, end up injuring themselves. Above: healthy and recovered baby squirrels after a week at WildCare
A squirrel nest is built to contain heat, so that baby squirrels are warm on chilly nights, but that means nests get incredibly hot when temperatures soar. Above: a squirrel at the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley
Volunteers and medical workers see broken teeth, split lips and hyperthermia, WildCare told DailyMail.com
WildCare admitted 15 hyperthermic, or overheated, baby squirrels during the three hottest days of the heatwave.
Hermance explained that medical interventions include giving the injured little squirrels subcutaneous fluids, providing careful cooling, giving them oral dextrose and a hydrating electrolyte solution, as well as treatment for shock including oxygen.
'As with humans, our wildlife patients experiencing hyperthermia (overheating) need to be cooled down, but you can't cool them down too quickly or you risk organ damage and death (this is
