Kitchen Crew - Class of 2006

Each year Secret World can care for up to 50 badger cubs. Most of them are found locally but many come from all other parts of the country because of the health protocol that the cubs receive prior to release. As each cub arrives, they are put into family groups and will remain in these groups and be released together as a unit.

There is usually one group of milk feeders who are reared in Pauline’s kitchen. These are the tiny cubs who are still needing bottles – sometimes day and night. This group is called the Kitchen Crew. They will number up to 8 cubs, after that most cubs arriving are weaned and will be cared for in casualty opens as there is no need for humane contact. The Secret World Web Cam shows you the cubs in the cubby hole in the kitchen and sometimes feeding time. The most activity will be seen approximately 7 – 8hrs, 12 – 13 hrs, 16 – 17 hrs, 20 – 21 hrs and 23 – 24 hrs.

March 25th 2006
Our first cub arrived at 23.15 hrs, very hungry and tried. She was found crying by the side of the road late that evening in Roadwater, near Minehead. A gentleman out walking his dog was alerted by the noise of her whickering. She was extremely cold and was quickly wrapped in a warm towel and we were contacted. This little cub has been called Hope. This is because we ‘hope’ that both she and other cubs will have a future with the threat of culling still looming from the government.



Hope only weighed 932g although she was about 6 weeks old with her eyes open. A cub this age should never be above ground and had probably come up from the sett looking for her mother. By her body condition, we would guess that she had been without food for about 5 or 6 days so it can be assumed that something must have happened to the mother to prevent her returning to her cub. The finders promised to search the area in case there were other cubs needing care.

It was important to get Hope rehydrated and syringe feeds of lectade ( fluid replacer ) followed by milk feeds after the first 24 hours meant that we soon saw an improvement. Hope slept almost solidly during her first day with us but became more active as she put on weight. Living in an incubator, Hope had a Teddy for company.

March 29th 2006
The first boy of the season, Henry ( yes, we are following H’s this year!) arrived with a very similar story. Found up above ground and crying, he was discovered by a workman at Westhay, on the Somerset Moors. He was a much chunkier cub and a few weeks older than Hope but had not been without food for as long as Hope. Weighing in at 1844gms, Henry was almost twice the size of Hope. It is difficult to mix when cubs are different in size ( as the older one usually wants to play longer and rougher ) however once Henry had had a couple of days peace and learnt to drink from the bottle, the two cubs were introduced. Hope is now just over a kilo and does not need to be in the incubator any longer. She is much livelier and well able to put Henry in place – he’s a bit of a whimp!  - so they have each other for company which is so much better than human contact.

April 2nd 2006
Hope and Henry are doing well. Hope is now drinking just over 100 mls of milk at each of her 5 feeds. Henry is averaging about 140 mls. They are both lively in their play with lots of yelps and whickering going on before their feeds and then just like human babies they fall asleep until the next feed about 4 hours later.

April 5th 2006
Number three joins the Kitchen Crew. Herbie was found at Blackford. He was discovered in a hedge – again crying which alerted attention. Herbie is only1360gms and very thin – with quite a few fleas! . He is probably about 8/9 weeks old and will be syringe fed until he gets used to the taste of the milk and learns how to suck from a babies bottle. He is a very quiet cub at the moment but no doubt his character will become more obvious as he grows stronger and joins the others.

April 7th 2006
Herbie has drunk from a bottle for the first time and is becoming more active. He has joined the other two in the kitchen cubby hole and enjoying having other cubs to play with and cuddle up when its time to sleep. Hope is still the boss although the youngest at 8 weeks. Henry at 10 weeks, now is just starting to get interested in custard cream biscuits so will soon be starting solids.

April 9th 2006
Holly comes all the way from Staffordshire to join the kitchen crew. Seen above ground near a sett for a couple of days, she had made a makeshift nest which probably protected her from the severe cold weather. On the advice of the badger group, she was picked up - and lucky to be found as when the members of Staffordshire Badger Group went to find her, she had wandered further over in the valley. The badger group supported her with small drinks of honey water by syringe until they could move her to us the following day

Holly was keen to take a milk feed although she has not mastered the bottle yet. Weighing just over 2 kilos Holly is aged around 10 to 11 weeks - she has soon settled in with the others.The Kitchen Crew is now four. 

May 10th 2006
Wow!! Things have changed. The Kitchen crew were finally joined by Harry and Heather on April 19th. These two small 10 week old cubs were discovered following a horse near Kilve, Somerset. Again, it would appear that the mother had failed to return to them and driven by hunger they had gone seeking company and food. These two were weaned but very hungry. They soon took to the other cubs who by now were almost weaned so once Harry and Heather had gained weight and were in good condition, the whole group ( except Herbie who was still quite small ) were moved to the Millie Block where they have plenty of space.

They have a wooden box to sleep in with hay and tunnels and tree roots to play with ( plus the odd ball and toy!). As soon as they moved down to the block, these cubs hid when the new carers go in to clean and feed. They are far more active in the evening/night now but luckily we can monitor them on our cctv. They have all had their first tb test and are all negative. The Kitchen Crew have been joined by a young female from the Gloucester Wildlife Hospital and she is called Thistle. This is a good balanced group with three males and four females.

Their next move will be allowed into the grassed enclosure attached to their pen. We’ll let you know how they get on!

Group 2
Little Herbie, being reared by Lisa, our vet nurse was too small to go with the big guys and he took up residence in the cubby hole all on his own.

26th May 2006
Little Herbie was too small to go to the Millie Block with the others and moved to the Cubby Hole when it became empty. Only a few days later we heard from a gentleman in Derbyshire who had been rearing a small cub and needed to pass it on to a new home as he was going on holiday. Luckily Pauline was going to Yorkshire that weekend and was able to collect the cub called Tinkerbell ( which was a bit of a shame as it was a boy!!) but he was the same size as Herbie.

While travelling Derbyshire, Pauline was contacted about two other sibling cubs that had been found by a dog. One had a cut just above the eye but there did not seem to be any other injuries. These two named Billy and Betty ( both boys – need some sex lessons in Derbyshire !!) travelled down with Tinkerbell and were soon at home in the kitchen. Once they were all on solids, this group also moved to a pen in the Millie Block. All boys together until a young female cub arrived from the Willow Wildlife Res cue in Kent. This little girl was called Bluebell and had been found with bite wounds to the neck and a leg injury. Well on the way to recovery, she was happy to have other badgers to play with and soon joined in all the games.

The last to arrive in this group was a female cub from Gwent Badger Group – the Welsh are just as bad as people from Derbyshire as the cub was called Freddy! Still the cubs I’m sure will know what is what and Freddy was soon romping around the pen and even daring to put little Herbie in his place.  This group now has access to an outside grassed enclosure and are enjoying the recent rain that has made worming a favourite night-time game.

News about Group 3 will be coming on line soon. 

 

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New Road, East Huntspill, Highbridge, Somerset TA9 3PZ, UK
Tel. : (44) (01278) 783250, Fax : (44) (01278) 793109
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Website by Dae Sasitorn, lastrefuge.co.uk
and Angie Barber, The Secret World Wildlife Rescue