How can you not look at—or post—a piece from ABC 15 News in Arizona called “Baby squirrel falls from tree, wears little red cast, gets help from City Wildlife Rehab Center“? (It’s based on a Tw**t from City Wildlife.)
First the photo, then the explanation:
WASHINGTON DC – A tiny squirrel is recovering with the help of veterinarians and a little red cast after falling 75 feet.
According to ABC News, the baby squirrel, who is only six and a half weeks old, fell onto the sidewalk from her nest in a Washington D.C. tree.
She was taken to City Wildlife, an animal rehabilitation center in the area to be treated for a bloody nose and broken tooth and ankle.
A cast was put on the squirrel’s leg and is checked every few days to make sure it heals correctly.
She is expected to make a full recovery and is reportedly doing well.
The rehabilitation center, according to their website, is a nonprofit group dedicated to helping injured and orphaned animals. They can treat 1,200 animals annually.
That cast is as big as the whole baby squirrel!
But in which direction do you suppose it is wrapped?
The other way, of course.
b&
That was my first reaction too!
Luckily the squee squirrel is on the right side of “too small to help with current technology”. Wonder if veterinarians are into developing miniature technology much?
[They would certainly need small toilet paper rolls for that one. =D]
🙂
Totally unrelated – Answers in Genesis has reviewed “Your Inner Fish”. I scanned it – but could not bring myself to read it. If anyone wants to see it – not sure if it will make you laugh or cry – it is here:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2014/04/12/review-inner-fish-1
I wonder why the all-merciful God who watches the fall of every sparrow didn’t take pity on this creature?
She was watching – it’s a spectator sport.
To mis-quote either Obi-Wan, or Luke, “That ain’t no sparrow.”
Now he needs a tiny wheelchair, a set of binoculars, and visits from Grace Kelly.
I get that.
Room with a view IIRC with whotshisname in it.
I’m surprised that a baby squirrel would be injured by such a fall. I guess the sidewalk got him.
Given the infamous agility of squirlz, even if the ankle healed (heeled?) crooked, quite likely the beast would be able to get around perfectly adequately.
But that broken tooth is potentially troublesome, particularly if it’s an incisor. If it’s not there for a while, then the opposing incisor could grow to the extent that it would prevent proper occlusion, proper tooth-on-tooth wear, and eventually proper feeding.
Or do any vets know that I’m just dreaming up problems. There are some people here who do rescue work and may know.
Rodent incisors grow very fast, and I bet they are worn down by gnawing on stuff rather than by occlusion with their opposite numbers. So I don’t think there will be a problem (but IANAV).
That’s almost as cute as a sloth in a onesie.
I saw this yesterday, and my first reaction was, not surprisingly: How long would it take for Jerry to post it on WEIT?
Not 300 years ago, with no humans around to interfere with the natural selection process, this squirrel would have been snatched up by the first alert predator that happened along. Assuming this squirrel lives to procreate, perhaps its lack of finely-tuned balance will be passed along. It’s like “Why Evolution is True” but “We’re Gonna Fight Against It Nevertheless”. Don’t we show our unwillingness to let “survival of the fittest” take its course by these kinds of rescue actions?
“survival of the cutest” is a viable form of “survival of the fittest” is you are one of the cutest. Clearly the squirrel qualifies!
The failure to survive doesn’t necessarily mean that the creature wasn’t fit. There is always just plain bad luck.
Natural selection always operates, whether anyone is there to witness it or not. It eventually results in the (more or less agonizingly painful) death of all individuals and the extinction of all species. There is, nearly always, nothing anyone can do to prevent it happening. We may be completely convinced of evolution by natural selection as a fact, and glad of the wonderful adaptation and beauty it has produced, without cheering it on in the case of a baby squirrel.
‘Don’t we show our unwillingness to let “survival of the fittest” take its course by these kinds of rescue actions?’
Sure we do. Why shouldn’t we? Here in NZ the government is doing its best to interfere with the natural course of evolution by preserving the kakapo (and other endangered species which really should be extinct by now).
Since we’re going to screw with nature in almost everything we do, we might as well at least do it in a compassionate way.
I’m no biologist, but I would assume a few rescues will just constitute happenstance “noise” to add to Greg’s “bad luck” in the first place.
And it is a form of selection too (as PP reminds us). If such things as poorer balance would go towards fixation despite a poor “signal”, the trick is to keep it up to minimize contributions to suffering.
In fact, our tendency to help, as well as picking out baby features, are already selected for (in us). So if we would entertain that old fallacy of appeal to nature, we are just doing what it asks for. =D
Growing up, I used to think that I should keep trying to swat the most agile flies, so that I wouldn’t improve their tendencies to make pests of themselves. But I recognize now that they are already agile fliers, swatting is mostly taking the otherwise weak. (I assume everyone saw the movies of Jerry’s pet subjects, fruit flies, the other week. They have managed to make extreme high speed movies of fruit flies making banked turns at IIRC 5 times their normal turn rate when “startled” – avoiding perceived danger. Evolution is, as always, amazing!)
Oh yes, I remember now. The banking happens within 1/2 – 1 wing beat.
Aircraft pilots, take that!
Speaking of tendencies to “help”, I’m reminded of another recent movie, the rather distant monkey that may or may not comfort his dying mate. She fell out of a tree and got her head bashed in or something such, died within the hour I think.
Without appending too much anthropomorphism (I hope), the male is shown trying to interact with the injured female. What they don’t show is that the behavior included attempts at mating… I was told it is, like in bonobos, a way of establishing social rapport, at least within mating pairs.
It all goes to show that other species will not easily understand all the characteristics of our interaction, and we will have problem understanding them. I feel for the cats (even the dogs!) that tries to live with us…
This is a perfect illustration to a childrens song known to several generations of Swedish children, about a squirrel jumping from tree to tree, hurting his leg – and his long fluffy tail.
A really cute photo, and an extremely humane thing to do for a wild animal this small and young. Now, would it not be just as nice, if people treated each other as well as they do for other life forms on the planet? I do have one other question, though, for everyone else: Do you think the baby squirrel is Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist? Nah…its probably a Wiccan or a Druid. Almost as bad…albeit more natural.