Adoptions – A Gift of Life

Otter pups rescued by Secret World Wildlife Rescue are generally due to them being orphaned by the mother being killed on the road. Otters spend about 80% of their time on land so, although their diet is primarily fish, they will take water birds, roosting birds in reeds and amphibians as food, as well as crustaceans. The pups are born all year round and will remain with the mother for up to 15-18 months.

We very rarely get adult otters brought into us but usually have otter pups most years. The youngest that we have ever had was the only time that we had three siblings in 2007. These were named Splish, Splash and Splosh and we were able, with the help of our supporters to build a dedicated enclosure for young otters with a large 4 metre pool. The pups were only about 6 weeks old and most pups coming in will be on milk feeds. They wean when they are approximately 8 weeks old and very quickly change from milk feeds to small troutlings. At this age they are very fluffy and unable to swim. The fluffy fur traps air in the fur so that if they fall in the water they will float for a while giving them the opportunity to climb out. If left in, the coat will eventually soak up the water and the cub will sadly drown.

Within the next couple of weeks our pups are introduced to water in the same way as the mother would take them down to water to learn how to swim. To start with they don’t like the water but slowly they learn to close their nostrils and their third eye protects their eyes when under water allowing them to see. Once they have learnt how to do this they can swim easily and will play with items in the water. Otters have very sharp teeth for catching fish. They have very sensitive whiskers that allow them to find fish easily. Their strong muscular tail, slender body and webbed feet make them excellent swimmers and divers. Otters have dense fur which means they can survive in the water at very low temperatures, their long outer guard hair keeping them warm and dry by trapping layers of air.

As soon as they are self-feeding, we stop as much human contact as possible. They now need water available to them all the time. When tiny, the pups are used to being dried with warm towels so, once in their new pens we give them blankets to rub themselves dry until they start to use the straw in their box. Once we are sure that they are managing on their own, they are moved to the otter enclosure with special insulated boxes to replace the holt that they would have as a home. The pups will be with us for 15 to 18 months which is the same amount of time that they would be with their mother before dispersing.

Our Wildlife Release Manager will have found a release site for each otter to go to. There needs to be a temporary pen which will be fenced with electric fence sited next to a waterway – a river or a rhine. A plastic tub is put inside to give them access to water. They are moved in the boxes that they usually sleep in so it is familiar to them in their new home. The landowner will feed them each day. By this time they are eating a large trout, 2 dead chicks and mince daily so otters are very expensive to look after. After a week, the electric fence is taken down. We try to monitor post release to see if they stay in the area, but they usually travel down the water course to find a new territory. But we have, in the past had good camera footage of released otters eating naturally in the streams which is great.

Adult badgers can come into us all year around due to road traffic accidents. They are a very strong animal and can survive impact from cars. At other times of the year when the males are defending their territories, they can often fight and if injured will often lay up in places where they can get disturbed, like stables or sheds. We take these animals in a treat them, but adult badgers must go back to where they came from. They can also get trapped in fences or drains.
Sadly, we also see badgers that have been persecuted in snares, shot or attacked by dogs. Although they have a reputation for fighting, they are very easy to handle in captivity but should always be looked after by experienced carers. Because they are nocturnal, if they recover, we always release badgers at night back to where their family is.

Badgers have delayed implantation which means that they can mate at any time of the year but the eggs implant when the female slows down in the winter. Therefore, most cubs are born between January and March. The cubs are born underground and do not wean until they are 10 – 12 weeks old and this is when they come up above ground. However dogs will sometimes go in to setts and take the cubs, the female may be disturbed while she is moving her cubs for some reason or cubs will come up above ground through hunger if the female doesn’t return to them because she has been killed or injured.

We have cared for cubs that have only been a day old, but they are very small and need to be kept in an incubator because they are unable to maintain their body temperature. The number of bottle feeds during the day (and even the night!) will depend on the age of the cub.

When the cubs come up above ground, they follow their mother’s feet and she will take care of them. Sometimes they get lost and again if the mother is killed, they are still too young to look after themselves and will be found starving and looking for help. These weaned cubs will not need as much care as the very young ones. If we are unable to get the cub back to its mother, they are cared for and allowed to put on weight and gain condition. They get tested for Bovine tb and if negative are grouped according to age and size. These ‘families’ of up to six cubs will go through a further two tests for Bovine tb and then be vaccinated. As a group, to start with they are kept in pens so that we can monitor them and ensure that they are all getting enough food. Then the badger cubs move out to grassed enclosures with little human contact. In these pens they can play, forage and behave naturally until the autumn when they will go to their new release site.

In the previous winter, our Wildlife Release Manager will be surveying sites on private land looking for land that is suitable for badgers but has a very low population of badgers. The site may have a deserted rabbit burrow or an empty badger sett. These would give the new cubs the opportunity to excavate and build their own sett. If there is nothing suitable on the land, then an artificial sett is built and allowed to settle and grow over ready for the cubs coming about 8 months later.

In the autumn the cubs are caught up and taken in cages to the new release site. There will be an enclosure of electric fencing around the sett to keep the cubs in until they have got used to their new environment. The landowner takes over the feeding of the badgers every night. After a couple of weeks, the electric fence is removed, and the badgers can start to explore their new home. The landowner will often give them food right the way through the winter until natural food becomes available to them in the spring.

Living in Somerset which is one of the strongholds for the Barn Owl, we also see quite a few of those.  The Barn Owl female lays her first egg and then starts to incubate straight away. She will lay another egg about four days later, probably laying four or five eggs in this way. It means that the chicks hatch out at different times. The first hatched will be quite a lot larger than the last chick to hatch out. This is done so that if there isn’t enough food for the youngsters, big chick will eat the smaller one in order to survive. The Barn Owl has silent flight because its feathers are incredibly soft, but this also means that they cannot fly in wet weather. This can sometimes make it very difficult to find enough food for the youngsters.

The Long Eared owl is found in our county as is the Short Eared but the population of those is quite small so they are infrequent casualties. Then there is the Little Owl which again is quite common, so we do see a lovely variety of owls at Secret World. A common problem is being caught in the up draught from traffic if they are foraging near to roads. This can cause wing and body damage. The youngsters are found when the parents have been unable to find enough food for them or the parent birds have been killed or died. Then the youngsters come out of the nest sites looking for food.

Adult owls come in either through trauma such as a road accident, if we experience high winds or long spells of wet weather, this can make hunting difficult for them and they become weak from hunger. They can get tangled in netting, fall down chimneys and even caught in kite string! Usually by giving them fluid therapy, keeping them warm and then making food available to them, they do soon recover. After a period of being confined, they will have lost muscle condition, so it is really important that we move them out to our aviaries to improve their condition. Once fully back to health, they will be returned to wherever they were found. It is important that they return to their home where they will know where to go for food, water, places of safety and maybe a partner to return to as well. They will be released just as it starts getting dark as they are nocturnal and will be more active then.

Owlets have to be fed on food that contains fur, bone and feather as they bring up a pellet every day of the indigestible matter as they swallow their food whole. Most owls will eat small mammals such as voles, mice, young rats, small birds and Little owls also eat a lot of insects. Very young owlets need to be hand fed small pieces of food that the female would normally tear up for them but after the first week they will start picking food items up for themselves. As with all young animals, it is important that they are put with their own kind to stop them from becoming imprinted. If they only see a human when being fed, they will believe that they are humans too.

Once grouped with others and feeding themselves we move them in to large aviaries to let them fly and build up the muscles in their wings. When we know that they can fly well and eat everything that they need, our Wildlife Release Manager will be taking our pop-up aviaries out to their release site which will be close to some woods. The aviaries will have perches of different sizes to exercise their feet and we usually cover the perches with astro turf. This stops the owls from problems with their feet such as bumble foot. The owls are then moved to their new home. The land-owner will continue feeding them and then will open a side of the aviary about a couple of weeks after their arrival. Even when the owls have the chance of freedom, they still return for food until they have managed to catch their own. They are supported all the way through until they become independent. We do all that we can to make sure that their release back in to the wild will be successful.

The hedgehog has been with us since the ice age and if we are to value them, we must make our gardens suitable for them. The hedgehog hasn’t changed very much since the beginning, having a soft brown belly that is completely protected by the spines that cover their backs. They have a nice long snout to grub around and search for insects and grubs. There is a circular muscle around the spines so that if they are frightened, they can pull the muscle up tight tucking legs and head inside leaving a ball of spines that are very difficult to handle! We probably care for about 700 hedgehogs every year.

Autumn is the time when we get a lot of hedgehogs brought in that haven’t reached their hibernation weight of 650 gms. Late hoglets will not usually have enough time to put on the weight and if that is the case, the mother will desert them as it is more important for her to put on weight and be alive the following year. When hedgehogs come in at this time of year, they usually have an infestation of worms and need treatment before they can start gaining weight. They can also suffer from ringworm, a fungal infection which again can compromise the animal. If we are able to get the hedgehogs up to weight through the winter months, we do release in mild spells as research has found that they do wake up from time to time and move their hibernaculum naturally. As long as they go back to where they came from, they will know where they can find shelter.

Coming out of hibernation from March onwards, the hedgehog will start to mate. The territory for a hedgehog is 1 to 2 km and they live solitary lives but share territories. Disturbed nests is very often the reason for little hoglets to be brought into care. It is always worth leaving them for a while (depending  on temperature and how young the hoglets are) to see if mum comes back for them.
When first born the hoglets are pink and have no spines, just bumps down the back. Within 2 to 3 hours soft white spines sprout through. The harder brown spines replace them as the hoglet grows. These very young hoglets need intensive care. An incubator to keep them warm and feeds every 3 hours through day and night to start with. It is important to find a teat/feeder that is small enough for them to suckle from. We mark each baby with white tippex so that we can keep a record of which one has been fed, how much they are taking etc. There will be no mark, then a white spot on the head, white middle, white rump, white left hand side and white right hand side.

Once they start to wean, they move into a brooder which gives them space to be able to walk around and grow their muscles. They will start to eat from tiny dishes and it’s quite a problem keeping them clean when they just walk all through the food! They will go from having soft fleeces to having hay and eventually go into an outside run. We then release them back to where they were found once independent. It is best if the juvenile hedgehogs can be enclosed for a short period of time to know that food will be found there and, once given freedom, they can come back until they are able to find their own food. Sometimes, after being handled, hedgehogs will self-anoint. This is where they throw spittle from their mouth on to their backs. It is usually instigated by a smell that they don’t recognise. No one seems to know why they do it and there is nothing in the spittle to create a substance with the spines.

Summertime is difficult for hedgehogs if there is a long period of dry weather as they are unable to find enough worms and insects. Food put out regularly will attract hedgehogs and if placed in an up -turned box with a pipe leading out of it that is about 9cms diameter, it will stop the cats from eating it before they can get there!
Other dangers to hedgehogs are ponds without sloping sides so that if they fall in, they can’t climb out. Terrible injuries can be caused by the use of strimmers – always walk the area first to make sure there is nothing that can be injured in the way. Bonfires too can be a danger to them, particularly around bonfire night as this is the time that hedgehogs are looking for somewhere to hibernate. It is best to move your wood/ rubbish from the pile to a new site during the day before you light the bonfire to make absolutely sure that nothing has decided to make it their home.  If we can prevent accidents – we save lives!

Long spells of hot weather make foraging difficult for foxes but as soon as the rain comes there is a glut of food as the worms come to the surface. Adult foxes will be kept on their own and receive veterinary care while they are with us. We care for approximately 30 adult foxes each year. Your adoption will help us with the cost of medication, food and care, The adult fox will eventually be returned their home where they will have been missed by the rest of their social group.

Fox cubs usually start to arrive at Secret World from January onwards. We can have as many as 40 fox cubs each year. Very young fox cubs are chocolate brown and are often mistaken for kittens or puppies. To start with they will be in incubators as they are unable to maintain their own body heat. By 3 weeks their coats will start to turn red and by then, they will be eating solids and will now be in a brooder with fleeces and toys! As soon as their eyes open at 10 days old we try to mix them with other cubs of the same size. It is important for them to be put with other fox cubs to know what they are. They become independent very quickly and will no longer need a carer to monitor their food and progress.

They then move into our casualty pens which gives them more room to play. Once they have had their full health checks and vaccinations the young fox cubs move out to our grassed enclosures. Here they can forage naturally although they are still support fed with food being thrown into them each night, leaving them to revert to being wild.
As we move to the autumn, which is when fox cubs naturally disperse, our Wildlife Release Manager will be checking the site that he has ready for their release.  The temporary fox enclosure will be erected at the release site and once complete, it will be ready to accept the first group of foxes leaving us. The juveniles will be transported in cages to their new home. We supply the landowner with the food for them for the next few weeks and they will monitor the foxes and feed them every night.

After a couple of weeks, once they have got used to their surroundings, the door will be opened allowing them to leave. Food will continue to be put in the pen until the foxes no longer return showing that they are now capable of finding their own food. Some move away straight away but many stay around even through to the following year.