THIS nutty baby squirrel could have been squashed when it chose to hide in a car wheel.

Luckily the rodent was spotted by a member of Oxford University staff who nicknamed it “Sqwheelie”

and made sure it was safe.

Ian Curtis, who works at the Environmental Change Institute behind the Museum of Natural History, spotted Sqwheelie near his office on Monday lunchtime and it turned out to be very playful.

He said: “I was coming back through the science area and there it was.

“At first it was hiding behind a pillar, playing cat and mouse as I tried to get a shot.”

He said Sqwheelie ran after a cyclist, then came back and ran under the car.

He said: “It nipped behind the wheel, and popped up through the hubcap, as if to say ‘How about this one?’”

Mr Curtis said the squirrel was less than half the size of an adult and said it was either a baby or a dwarf.

Just as he was debating whether to try to shepherd Sqwheelie back to the park to its mum and dad or leave the squirrel to its own devices, the rapid rodent dashed off around the corner and under some more cars.