In July 2011, “Gullyver” not only captured the hearts of people in Hamburg. The image of the squirrel stuck in a manhole cover made it into the national media. The story of the animal shooting star had everything – except for a happy ending. Out of sheer shock at being rescued, “Gullyver” died a few hours later. Not an isolated case, a year later the same happened to a rodent from Lower Saxony. Munich’s “Olivio” barely survived his rescue in 2017; the then operator of the 24-hour squirrel emergency telephone in Munich nursed him back to health; “Olivio”, named after the olive oil that was used to free him, also found a girlfriend.
At least three politicians in Münster have probably followed these dramatic stories – and have therefore applied for the construction of a structure to prevent squirrels from even getting close to dangerous manhole covers. In the most beautiful city in the Münsterland – otherwise known more as a cyclist’s paradise and for a black swan in love with a pedal boat – a non-party representative and representative of the ÖDP and a satirical party called for “squirrel bridges” – thick ropes that are stretched across streets from tree to tree the little animals can safely climb over. In this way, according to the application, the number of squirrels killed in road traffic should be reduced; In addition, the hanging bridges have a “radiance far beyond the region”.
Well, Münster would not be a pioneer, even Berlin has a squirrel bridge. And the city doesn’t really need any additional PR either. The city administration saw it the same way and not only rejected the application, they also announced that the number of squirrels in the city had even increased in recent years “due to the good food supply”. But maybe that’s the simple solution, at least to the manhole cover problem: squirrels that have eaten a lot of bacon are simply too fat to get stuck in the holes.
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