Dani Connor, a zoologist and wildlife photographer from London, UK, has been living in North Sweden for only three months, but she has already gotten herself in quite the adventure.
She recently became a temporary mum to four baby red squirrels after their mum was unfortunately hit by a car. The little critters have already learned to trust her and even recognize Dani's voice.
As they remain in the wild, the photographer visits them every day and not only makes sure they have plenty to eat and drink but captures them growing up as well. During one of the photoshoots, Dani came up with the idea to record one of the babies munching. She put her microphone right next to it, and the most adorable squirrel ASMR was born. The clip already has over 12M views on Twitter and the number continues to climb.
Check out the adorable baby squirrel ASMR video below
Everything began when Dani got particularly fond of one red squirrel. "I named her Remy as her face reminded me of the rat from Ratatouille," she told Bored Panda. "She was always the first red squirrel to test my photography setups."
Two weeks ago, Dani found her body next to the road after Remy was fatally injured by a car. "I was devastated, not only was she my favorite squirrel but somewhere in the forest, she had a drain full of kits, or baby squirrels. I then went to the forest to search for the drey, it was an impossible mission," Dani recalled. "I was very lucky to find where the baby squirrels were! I spoke to several wildlife sanctuaries and the advice I was given was that the baby squirrels are too small to survive on their own and if their mother had been killed by a car, they need to be captured and raised in captivity. I watched over the baby squirrels and I was so happy to see them eating the food I had left them, I decided that if they have teeth and that they can eat, they should be able to survive in the wild." Since then, Dani has been going to the forest for 4 to 6 hours every day and has gotten really close with the baby squirrels.
The wildlife photographer who captured it also shared a story, explaining how she got so close to the little buddy
The photographer slash caregiver typically goes to the forest in the early afternoon. The squirrels are usually still sleeping. I shout 'baby squirrels' when I walk into the forest and they come down. I feed them sunflower seeds, peanuts, apple, and pear and give them plenty of water. After a few hours with them, they usually go back up the tree to sleep," Dani explained.
Image credits: DaniConnorWild
Dani thinks the critters will grow up to be fully self-dependent and be able to forage their own food in 3 to 4 weeks. "They will learn to live on their own. Squirrels are highly adaptable animals. I have already seen them cache food and no one has taught them this behavior - they learn from instinct, trial, and error."
The baby squirrels had a really bad start in life, but something tells me that with such a devoted foster mom, they're gonna be just fine.