Hand-reared squirrels enjoying the high life again after Fife rescue

A family of red squirrels have been released back into the wild after they fell to earth in Fife when they were just hours old.

The five newborns were handed in to the Scottish SPCA by a member of the public after they were blown out of a tree on July 29.

Weighing just 12 grams each when they arrived at the charity’s national wildlife rescue centre at Fishcross, near Alloa, they needed hourly feeding, so animal care assistant Juanita Zaldua stepped in to play mum and provide the kits with round-the-clock care.

Juanita said: “It was touch and go for a while, we weren’t sure if they were going to make it.

“Kits that young should be with their mum and require dedicated specialist care.

“I had to feed them every hour, even through the night, for the first three weeks.

“In the third week they opened their eyes, which made the sleepdeprivation worthwhile.”

Juanita kept up her hand- rearing role for more than two months.

“Once they had weaned at around nine weeks, they were strong enough to go out into the aviary where they learned to interact and play,” she said.

“We recently released them in an area of the Highlands where conservationists are trying to increase the population of red squirrels.

“We were all very sad to see them go but it was so rewarding to be able to raise them and watch them be released back to their natural habitat.

“I was like a proud mum watching her babies enter the big, wide world.”

Their new home has nest boxes and support feeding and the youngsters are being monitored as the temperatures drop.

And like any proud mum, Juanita is appreciating every update telling her how her babies are faring.

“We were over the moon to be sent footage of our squirrels jumping from tree to tree and feeding well,” she said.

Scotland is home to three-quarters of the UK’s population of red squirrels – an estimated 120,000 animals – and a number of groups such as Scottish Wildlife Trust, Nature Scotland, Trees for Life and Red Squirrel Survival Trust are working across the country to try to increase their numbers.

They were once found all over Scotland but are now concentrated up north or around Tayside.

The emergence of nonnative grey squirrels had an impact, due to competition and disease.

But the decline is also down to human activity as many of the red squirrel’s habitats have been destroyed for development.

The Scottish SPCA animal helpline is on 03000 999 999.

The squirrels during their time in the SSPCA’s care.