Touching Moment Mama Squirrel Reunites with Lost Baby Brings All the Feels

I’m a big fan of squirrels. Some people call them rats with fuzzy tails, and although this may be rather accurate, I still find them adorable. (Lots of people love rats, too!). While my neighbors drop big bucks on “squirrel-proof” bird feeders, I’m the person out there feeding the actual squirrels.

But in all my squirrel watching and squirrel befriending, I’ve never actually seen a baby squirrel in person. So I’m utterly charmed by this video of a mama and baby squirrel reuniting.

“I got a call from a finder of a baby squirrel that fell from a tree in her yard,” writes a wildlife rehabber on the caption of this sweet video. “I was able to go over the process of reuniting him back with his mother. The finder’s determination made this reunion possible! This shows the love a momma squirrel has for her babies! She always wants her healthy baby back.”

Related: Black Squirrel Mama 'Folds Up' Baby To Take Him With Her and It's Too Adorable

For wildlife rehabilitation experts, it often seems like an uphill battle to educate the public about the proper way to care for injuries or wayward animals in their yards. There are pervasive myths about how animal mothers will “reject” animals if they are touched by human hands, and many times, well-meaning people will just take animals out of their natural habitats entirely and bring them into rescue centers in scenarios where their mothers do want to come back.

Ways to Help Wayward Baby Animals

For what it’s worth: you can pick up a baby bird and put it back in the nest, but if it has feathers already, it’s what is called a fledgling and is learning to fly from the ground up. Mother deer often leave their fawns unattended in thick hedges, tall grass, or even flower beds while they go out and forage. They will come back for the baby come nightfall. Leave it alone.

Rescuing Baby Squirrels

And as for baby squirrels, this is the process this wildlife rehabilitation expert recommends.

If the baby squirrel has fallen from the tree and the mother is not around, make sure that it’s not in danger from predators like dogs, cats, birds of prey, or foxes, and put it in a cardboard box with a towel and a warm water bottle (to keep the baby warm). Then attach the box to the nearest tree where you found it (or nestle it at the base). The mother will return to retriever her baby if she can.

In this case, the mother squirrel waited until it was safe and then came and got her baby. That’s one more reunion and a whole lot of work off a rescuer’s plate.

Life Cycle of Squirrels

Female squirrels can have up to two litters per year, with each litter containing two to four babies. Like most rodents, they are prolific breeders. Baby squirrels are weaned around ten weeks, then stay with their mother for several more weeks learning to forage. If the babies are born in autumn, they may even winter over with their moms.

In the wild, baby squirrels have a high mortality rate, with only one in four surviving to adulthood, as squirrels are a common prey animal for predation by larger mammals and raptor birds. If they survive all this, they usually live for six to eight years, and can make it as many as twelve.

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