soaking! 400 grams of fiependes fur fall from the cat tree on the head and ruffle the folded twitched visitors to the hair. Then, the red-brown squirrel walks across the shoulders and hops down, before it disappears in the next Cup. Fluffy this is. “Great, is it?” Tanya asks Lenn and laughs. Boring it is not safe here.
Actually, the occasion of the visit, but it is not beautiful. Lenn, 54 years old, short, dark hair and round glasses, wearing functional clothes for the care of the animals. In the “squirrel-help of Berlin/Brandenburg” maintains she was injured, Weak and Orphaned. They could begin in the year 500 ends. Currently there are around 40. The Station is well utilised. Actually, she wanted to help more. Because the ends are in Need. This year, as bad as perhaps never before.
guilt is the hot summer. He has not done the squirrel. And your lining. Actually, the animals collect and bury your supplies in the fall for the Winter. You dig, then holes, and bury their food. But this year it was time to capture far less. Some hazelnuts are simply hollow. The animals were not able to make provisions for the Winter. Through the summer they are weakened. There is much to do for Tanya Lenn and their volunteer comrades-in-arms. There are about a dozen, here on the edge of a forest in Teltow.
n Tanya Lenn of the squirrel-care station in Teltow has been cared for as a child, orphaned animals.Photo: Anne Armbrecht
sleeping bags, stuffed mice and scratching posts
The house just in time before the Winter to a new heating and hot water. Two big dogs come sniff, a cat is asleep, purring in the corner. There’s no Trouble with the squirrel? No, because the “sacred”. “It must be clear to everyone who enters this house,” says Tanya Lenn.
There are two rooms and an outdoor area of 150 square meters. Inside cages are for the sick and young animals. Outside, there are tree trunks, scratching posts, swings, and wheels. With bark mulch and pine needles, it has a strong smell to the wood, and with the sail cloths on the ceiling, the light has dimmed, so to speak, so, as you fought in the forest under dense tree crown through the wood. Thin and thick sleeping bags, colorful and warm, hanging from the ceiling. They serve as a substitute for the natural Kobel: the actual construction. Sometimes they cuddle with plush mice or to each other. Stuffed animals and adoptive siblings serve as a substitute for Family up to the release. Actually, the throw to grow in the squirrel up to six animals. The nursing station should be a home away from home.
All of the animals get a name
Tanya Lenn grew up with animals. First, it was of a girl in the stored Guinea pigs of the class, then the budgie, later, the tortoise, at some point the first ends. Bobo was the name of it and disappeared at some point, with new powers, through the cat flap in the freedom. Even today, each of the animals gets Tanya Lenn a name. Griselda and Felix is the name of the Youngest. She’s holding them apart to coat color and a Brush shape of the ear.
The reasons why squirrels land at Tanya Lenn, are numerous. Trees are felled, they fall in rain barrels, native animals to be run over. Also crows are predators in the nests and throw the young animals. The other day, tells Tanya Lenn, had caught a red ball in the pigeon grids. Cruel as it was, she says. The animal was severely injured.
porridge it is for the Smallest out of the Pipette. Sometimes also need to be splash. Lenn takes your squirrel with the gloves gently out of the cage. It make any electronical noises excited. Trying to squirm out of your Hand – no Chance. As it is now. Otherwise, the Small will not make it.
Sometimes the ends are also not viable. The spine is broken. The animals are too small or too exhausted. Fur that will soak up, so that they fall in the rain just from the tree. One came without the tail on the world. More and more often something is so, says Tanya Lenn. At least you watched it in 18 years, ends care the least often.
seasons are not aligned with squirrels
it Is climate change, plant protection products? Figures for the Population there, according to the nature protection Association Nabu. Therefore, it is difficult to say whether the squirrels are threatened. It is clear for Lenn, but There are developments that do not do the animals good.
been times in which it is forbidden to cut down trees and to trim hedges, are aligned with the Breeding seasons of birds, not the squirrels. The had their offspring earlier, between February and July. Today, these phases are longer, says Tanya Lenn. The squirrels are more likely to get twice per year is Small, from January to September. This means more effort during foraging, and nest building. These developments could lie on climate change, believes Lenn. The squirrel went to the warm winters of the last few years, often already weakened in the breeding season. Actually, you need the cold, to really get to rest. It is too mild, the metabolism does not shut down. Just eat more, and need your supplies faster. Especially in years like this, where the summer was hot and dry, this is difficult, since you could anyway little bunkers.
emergency relief on a donation basis
the withdrawal less rooms, according to Tanya Lenn – through deforestation and monotonous gardens. There are beautiful lawns, but any trees and shrubs to Hide. This is also for hedgehogs and birds to be a Problem. Lenn asks the people to be a bit “manicured Wilderness”. For example, you could create a diverse garden: with hazel hedges, trees, flowering plants. Maybe in the Winter, a wooden house set-up and lining out. The go on the balcony. High-calorie seeds and nuts are the best, and always water, she says. And one more thing: “If a young squirrel is coming to you, it needs help,” says Lenn. Rabies is not to be feared. The there is in this country.
The Association works together with the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and wildlife research. “Squirrel transfer anything else, what is dangerous to humans,” says Lenn. So have no fear, but the squirrel distress call to choose. Lenn and colleagues are available 24 hours a day. You pick up the animals, or ask Volunteers to bring the car to Teltow. Sometimes it rings twenty Times a day.
For your work Lenn 2015 has received the Berlin animal protection award. The squirrels help is reported to the conservation authority and recognized. However, state funding is not there. You have to rely on the generosity of the people. In addition to money, the club also hopes to in-kind donations. Whether crocheted climbing nets, knitted sleep sacks, or buckets of nuts: “Everything helps,” says Tanya Lenn. A fortiori, if, as now, is cold.
More info at: www.eichhoernchenhilfe-berlin.de
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