A squirrel king is a collection of squirrels whose tails have tangled together, making them unable to separate themselves.[1] It is similar to a phenomenon recorded in rats, the rat king.[2] A squirrel king starts as a litter of young in the same nest, whose tails become knotted together by nesting materials and/or by tree sap gluing the tails together, particularly if the young squirrels have been gnawing bark of the tree that their nest is in, letting sap flow. If the squirrels are not separated, they may fall to the ground still joined to each other when they try to come out of their nest, and will invariably die unless separated through human intervention.[3][4] Unlike the rat king, the squirrel king is not found in medieval European literature.[5]
The term rat king comes from the German, Rattenkönig, used to describe persons who lived off others. An alternative theory states that the name in French was rouet de rats (or a spinning wheel of rats, the knotted tails being wheel spokes), with the term transforming over time into roi des rats,[6] because formerly French oi was pronounced [we] or similar; nowadays it is pronounced [wa].
Five young squirrels found in a compost pile stuck together by their tails. Gathered babies in a cardboard box to transport to local vet parking lot to free them. All babies were rescued and they ran away shortly after.
Three adolescent squirrels found in a brush pile with entangled tails. All three tails needed to be partially amputated. Food and water were provided; two of three survived and ran off.
Five juvenile squirrels fell out of an ash tree. Overnighted in a cardboard box, in a garage, before being successfully separated by a local wildlife organization the next day. All were released, within 20 hours, back to the tree from which they fell.
There have been incidents of animal cruelty or taxidermic artwork, where humans tied the tails of squirrels together, making something resembling the natural squirrel king.
On 19 September 2019, 4 squirrels were found knotted together and tied up, on railroad tracks in Berlin, Connecticut, USA. They survived to be separated, but needed some amputation. In order to tie them up, the person who performed the act had to break their tails.[25][26]
