There are usually several things you can do if you come across an animal in need, but Siim Palu, communications manager for the Estonian Rescue Services Agency's Northern Regional Rescue Service, said the simplest option is often to contact an animal shelter.

Even so, he said rescuers regularly respond to calls involving animals in trouble, and sometimes even take them in until a new home is found.

Someone in Tallinn once called emergency services over a tarantula found abandoned in a small terrarium in the middle of the street.

"They did the right thing," Palu stressed. "Lilleküla rescuers went and picked it up and took it to Paljassaare Animal Shelter."

Rescuers have likewise responded to several calls over a fox at Viru Shopping Center recently, including after it had made a den in the mall's parking garage. Rather than tear apart the walls, rescuers waited for the fox to emerge before trapping it and releasing it in the wild.

"As the city expands, it's inevitable that wild animals will eventually make their way into urban areas," Palu said. "If [that fox] comes back a third time, we'll just have to take it further into the woods."

Rescuers have also responded to calls about pythons more than once. Most recently, they caught one slithering around a grassy area outside an apartment building in Mustamäe.

"That one was a story in itself," Palu recalled. A Lilleküla Rescue Brigade member happens to keep exotic pets and builds terrariums as a hobby, and he was the one who ended up rescuing the python loose in Mustamäe.

"He even took it home temporarily until we could find it a new home," the communications chief said.

'We rescue them all'

Rescuers have also handled more typical pets, from rabbits to the stereotypical cats stuck in trees.

"That's a call we get often," Palu confirmed, adding that rescuers can reach the cat with a ladder if it can't or won't come down on its own. "We rescue them all."

Birds pose another recurring challenge, often seasonally. Rescuers have regularly helped storks that fell from their nests.

"One time, a stork nest even caught fire," he recalled. "The rescuers cut the power and rescued the stork."

People can call emergency services at 112 when a large wild animal such as a moose or bear is in trouble or posing a danger in a more densely populated area. For other animal-related calls, the state helpline 1247 can also help.

"Rescuers handle all these calls one way or another anyway," Palu said. "We go to the scene, assess the situation, catch the animal and, if needed, provide temporary shelter until it's found a new home."

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