Wildlife rehabilitators in Wisconsin on Thursday worked to untangle the tails of five young squirrels after they became “hopelessly entangled” in their nest. The “Tale of Five Tails,” as the Wisconsin Humane Society’s (WHS) wildlife rehab program dubbed it, started when someone spotted the juvenile gray squirrels and reached out for help. Their tails had become entwined with “long-stemmed grasses and strips of plastic their mother used as nest material,” the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center wrote on Facebook. Rehabbers anesthetized the squirrels and carefully worked to detangle the little tails — a puzzle the Humane Society jokingly described as a “Gordian Knot,” a reference to a challenge faced by Alexander the Great, according to ancient lore. “It was impossible to tell whose tail was whose and we were increasingly concerned because all of them had suffered from varying degrees of tissue damage to their tails caused by circulatory impairment,” the post read. Eventually, they were able to cut away “at the grass-and-plastic knot with scissors, being very careful to make sure we weren’t snipping anyone’s tail in the process” in about 20 minutes’ time. The WHS said on Friday the squirrels were “bright-eyed” and three of the five critters were “bushy-tailed,” while the other two seemed to have a little less fur. Rehabbers said they’ll continue to monitor the squirrels to make sure their tails have sufficient blood flow.<doc-sep>Milwaukee, WI -- Five juvenile Gray Squirrel siblings are recovering after their tails became entangled with long-stemmed grass, strips of plastic that their mother used as nest material, and with each other.A citizen found the squirrels and called the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center at the Wisconsin Humane Society.The Center anesthetized all five squirrels and unraveled their tangled tails.According to the Center, "It was impossible to tell whose tail was whose, and we were increasingly concerned because all of them had suffered from varying degrees of tissue damage to their tails caused by circulatory impairment. "They were eventually able to snip away the grass and plastic knot. It took roughly 20 minutes to free the young squirrels.They will be monitored for a few more days to watch for tail necrosis caused by impaired blood flow.<doc-sep>Five infant squirrels have been rescued after being found tied together by their tails. The entanglement is thought to have happened by chance with the giant knot forming as the young greys moved about their nest and each other. Grass, twigs and bits of plastic had also become interwoven into the entanglement. A member of the public discovered the bizarre scene in Wisconsin, in the US, on Wednesday, and took them to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center at the state’s Humane Society – where vets worked to get them free. “You can imagine how wiggly and unruly (and nippy!) this frightened, distressed ball of squirrelly energy was, so our first step was to anaesthetise all five of them at the same time,” officials wrote on Facebook. With the animals out cold, vets spent 20 minutes unravelling what they called a “Gordian knot” of squirrel and nest material. “It was impossible to tell whose tail was whose, and we were increasingly concerned because all of them had suffered from varying degrees of tissue damage to their tails caused by circulatory impairment,” the centre wrote. But once loose, it said, the squirrels were left apparently unaffected by the tangle. 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They’re FINE, we promise. Photo : Wisconsin Humane Society A family of Eastern grey squirrels in Wisconsin got a little too close-knit this weekend after five juveniles got their tails tangled together. The squirrels are fine, we PROMISE, so don’t feel too bad for gawking at them. As the Guardian reports, the mother of these squirrels likely used plastic and long grasses to build her nest, which appears to have led to the unfortunate entanglement that the Wisconsin Humane Society described as a “Gordian Knot” on their Facebook page. Vets at the humane society anesthetized the five squirrels so they could work on separating the critters without getting scratched or bitten up. It ultimately only took 20 minutes to free the squirrels after snipping away at the plastic and grass and shaving the hair from their tails. Photo : Wisconsin Humane Society “If they had been left alone, they would have died,” said Angela Speed, vice president of communications at the Wisconsin Humane Society. The main concern for squirrels this young was that blood flow might have been cut off from their tails for long enough for the tissue to have died, which could easily have led to infection. But luckily for these critters, that isn’t the case, and Speed says they’re recovering well. As weird as it sounds, squirrel-knot situations like these seem to happen fairly often. “[One of our volunteers] has seen this before, but we’ve never had five tangled like this,” said Speed. We actually reported on a similar situation in Nebraska earlier this year, even though it was with fox squirrels rather than eastern greys. It’s pretty common for plastic fibers to get tangled around animals, leading to necrosis and sometimes toe or whole-foot amputation in animals like pigeons. Photo : Wisconsin Humane Society But this squirrel king (squirrel prince?) is fairly different from the “rat king” that may come to mind when you hear “rodents attached at the tail.” Rat kings are thought to happen when black rats swarm, tangling their hairless tails together in a real knot. The topic is shrouded in myth, although Mental Floss worked to detangle the story in this comprehensive piece. And if you need a palate cleanser after that, enjoy this photo of one of the five rescued squirrels doing normal squirrel things while being monitored in an enclosure before it and its siblings will hopefully be released into the wild. Normal squirrel things. Photo : Wisconsin Humane Society [The Guardian]