This week we thought we would tell you about the wildlife rehabilitation work of some of our friends and fellow organisations within the East Anglian region.
As a regular reader of this blog, you may know that here at the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary we specialise in the rescue, care and rehabilitation of wild UK native birds of prey, many of whom benefit from the respite afforded by our specialist Raptor Hospital which is funded by the generosity of you S.O.S. supporters.
We have many species brought into us each year and if you look back through our diary archive you will see that there are several stories relating to the rehabilitation work of the past few months.
However, having a reputation for wildlife rescue means that just occasionally we get animals brought into us that we either know nothing about, or are not equipped, to deal with - our field of expertise is very much restricted to Birds of Prey! So what do we do when we don’t know what to do ourselves?
The answer is to call in another expert, and we usually turn to our good friend Alec Suttenwood who runs the local organisation Ipswich Wildlife Care & Rescue for advice. He is very knowledgeable about the care & conservation of our UK native wildlife species and every now and then will pop in to see us at Stonham to tell us about his latest endeavours. This sometimes allows us to meet his fellow passengers on the day, who very often tend to be of the four-legged variety.
This week when he came in he told us about the badger cub featured in our picture. Both he & his sibling were recently spotted near a local main road by a member of the public. At the scene, Alec found that the mother (or “sow” as she should be correctly called) had sadly been the victim of a road traffic accident. Alec’s first course of action was to take the two cubs - brother and sister - to a vet, where it was discovered that whilst the sister had survived the incident unharmed, the male was less fortunate and had received two broken legs. Thankfully the vet was able to treat the fractures successfully and shortly after entrusted the pair back to Alec.
(Incidentally, the title of this story - Brock ‘n’ Bones - is inspired by the fact that Brock is the traditional Anglo Saxon / Old English name for the Badger.)
The rest of the story is a happy one. After a few weeks the orphans were fit enough to be transferred to another organisation, Wildlife Aid, run by Simon Cowell (no relation) down in Leatherhead, Surrey, which specialises in badger care and rehabilitation.
Wildlife Aid takes in badgers from all over the country and very carefully constructs new family groups from them, as badgers naturally naturally in family groups in the wild. Once the new family bonds have been established, the badgers are then released into man-made sets in remote areas where they won’t be disturbed by man or be in danger from road traffic.
We’re pleased to report that the brother and sister pair in this story have now been successfully released back into the wild at a man-made set down in Devon.
Alec’s wildlife care & rescue service is run entirely at his own expense and it really is wonderful to be associated with people who do such dedicated work. So if you come across an injured wild animal, that you think may need assistance then do not hesitate to contact him at the address below.
IPSWICH WILDLIFE CARE & RESCUE
The Bullpen
Belstead Hall Farm
Belstead
Ipswich