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Rescuing Berlin’s Squirrels

Baby Squirrel Feeding

What would you do if you found a baby squirrel alone in your garden or on the street?  Until recently I would have had no answer to this question but in the last week I’ve had some insight into caring for squirrels in Berlin and the work of Eichhörnchen Notruf eV, a charity responsible for rescuing squirrels in Germany.

Baby Squirrel Feeding in Berlin

Over the last few days my social media streams have been full of complaints about the weather in Berlin and whilst it has been rough on the people living here it’s been even tougher on the city’s squirrel population.

The high winds of the storm referred to as Niklas blew baby squirrels from their dreys and brought down the trees that held those nests in the first place.

My girlfriend’s sister has been caring for 4 squirrels brought to her over the last week and 3 more will be in her care from today.

Baby Squirrel Feeding in Slow Motion

Now, baby squirrels may look incredibly cute but rearing them is no easy task. They need to be fed every two hours and Lina does what she does on a completely voluntary basis.

So what should you do if you find a squirrel that has fallen from its nest?

The Eichhörnchen Notruf eV has a list of the 10 most important steps (in German).

The first thing is to check to see if it’s injured – it is fine to handle squirrels, they don’t carry communicable diseases but be careful (check the website for more details).  If it’s not in need of emergency treatment, the best thing is to keep an eye on it for an hour or so but allow the mother a chance to discover that it is missing and retrieve it if possible.

Read the 10 most important steps on the website but if you’re in any doubt, the emergency number for contacting the Eichhörnchen Notruf eV is 0700 200 200 12.

Four Baby Squirrels Sleeping

If you would like to help Eichhörnchen Notruf eV continue the great work they do with helping injured or orphaned squirrels in Germany you could consider making a donation:

Eichhörnchen Notruf e.V.

Hamburger Sparkasse – HASPA

Kontonummer: 1034244291
BLZ: 200 505 50

IBAN: DE38 2005 0550 1034 2442 91
BIC: HASPDEHHXXX

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One Response to Rescuing Berlin’s Squirrels

  1. notmsparker 2 April, 2015 at 12:44 #

    Great that you talk about it and thank you for all the important info. and an even greater thank you to your girlfriend´s sister for doing what she does! Funnily enough I had a close encounter with a squirrel today myself: I stopped in front of a particularly beautiful family tomb at the cemeteries in Bergmannstrasse and stood there for a while until I noticed something reddish on the edge of another big tombstone less than metre away from me. For a couple of seconds I thought it was a stuffed squirrel because it did not move an inch, holding its little paws folded on its chest and looking at me trembling in an at first for me imperceptible way. But it was real. I actually thought it looked like someone in a state of shock. I thought it was because of me but come to that, less than 5m away from us there was a broken tree whose upper part had already been removed, with only some smaller branches and loads of needles on the ground. Now I can guess why it was so traumatised.

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