Four distressed squirrels appeared to have their tails tied together.

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On May 14, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Officer Kevin Wamsley received a call about a group of squirrels in distress in the hamlet of Verbank, the DEC said in a press release on Thursday.

The caller stated the squirrels appeared to have their tails tied together and could not move freely.

ECO Wamsley responded to the location and discovered that the juvenile squirrel tails were stuck together with a mass of nest debris and a tar-like substance later determined to be pine pitch, officials say.

The squirrels were struggling to free themselves from their siblings, according to the DEC. ECO Wamsley captured the squirrels and began what's described as a "meticulous task" of freeing their tails.

After some time and quite a bit of effort, Wamsley was able to pull and cut away the nesting materials and freed the squirrels one by one. All four squirrels were released, officials say. It remains unclear how the animals got stuck.

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