Just before Christmas we released our 7 strong badger clan back into the wild where they belong. They all arrived with us as cubs with various injuries and unable to fend for themselves. They were called Bill, Rocky, Maisy, Pebbles, Daisy, Sandy and Barney .

One cute girl called Maisy was spotted by a kind man. He noticed what he believed to be a badgers bottom in his flowerpot. The soil and flowers had been removed with the powerful digging claws and the badger was head first in the soil sleeping and probably believed hiding. Maisy was too tiny to care for herself. The garden she was found in was visited by three setts and we felt it unsafe to leave her there as sometimes other badgers are not so welcoming to playful orphans.

Bill arrived with us from a cattle farmer who had found Bill laying by the body of his mum next to a busy road. Bill had a deep wound and an infections, it was so deep it took along time to heal and a lot of attention.

The badgers arrived one by one apart from a brother and sister pair, Rocky and Pebbles. They were found in a stream in a heavy current and had to be pulled to safety, the original person on the scene saw three cubs but only two were ever found. Badgers are strong swimmers but sometimes the currents are just too strong for cubs.

Barney was found by a stable. He hung around for a few days and was fed by a friendly lady. He hid between  the tack room and a stable.

It was hoped mum would find him but it was not to be. He was loosing weight and was getting distressed so he was brought in to join  some waiting step brothers and sisters.

The badgers were put together as soon as possible and were slowly weaned on to three meals a day. Their food was varied. Banana baby porridge was a firm favorite at breakfast topped with honey. They were growing in size and mother nature was guiding them away from us.

They spent a couple of months with us here and were monitored by camera as they were introduced to each other and we slowly got to understand the very different personalities of the delightful black and white orphans. Rocky was the largest male and pretty much in charge. The group played, foraged,dug up and trashed every part of their accommodation (click on the link to see a short video) with enthusiasm and cuteness and some pretty devastating claws.

Once they had destroyed their run here  they were ready to  move to their release site (click here to see video).

The release run was purpose built for our fox  and badger cubs. It has several meters of compacted soil with reinforced mesh to a similar depth. It allowed them to dig but not to dig out. They had a purpose built heated brick house containing a badger box , some underground plastic tunnels, a pond and even a very old growing Cherry Tree lovingly pruned to flourish by some very talented gardeners . The tree  provided  perfect roots to dig amongst and build their first sett.

The area was surveyed for other badgers, our local badger group helped with the survey and all was well.

The badgers spent the first few months in their heated house . It contained a purpose built badger box for them to sleep in.  They were not disturbed from here. Badgers are very clean animals and kept their bedding pristine.  The floor of the house was  insulated  for added protection. Badgers change their bedding regularly and love fresh hay to take into their sett. (click here to see video)Our badgers, guided once again by mother nature, did this naturally.

Over the next few weeks the heating was turned down and the badgers slowly became acclimatized. The Clan soon started digging as mother nature intended and within a few months had their own wonderful sett.  Bill was one of the few badgers we actually got to see but we could monitor all of them on specials cameras.

They have spent the last five months in this run and in this sett, playing and forming strong ties. Sometimes with some unusual friends
Bill at the release site playing with some foxes. Bill still remains friends with one our foxes even though both are free.

In spite of our survey, we discovered we had another badger outside the run. He was clearly a cub and sniffed at our cage most nights. The badgers met each other through the mesh and seemed OK. Young cubs can be vulnerable to large boars but our badgers were so well fed they were enormous and towered over this non aggressive newcomer. We were concerned that having been brought up in the safety of the run the dangers of this interloper may not have occurred to our play loving orphans.

We released them finally a few weeks ago and watched on the many cameras that surround the runs. The badgers were able to pass through our badger gate for the first time and were free to come and go as they pleased into the outside world. I was particularly concerned for the badger that was visiting our runs and hoped that there would be peace.

Well I need not have worried because instead of our badgers making any attempt to leave their sett and dig a new one they brought home not one but two other badgers and now we have nine. YES NINE!!!!

I am not so sure that worked as planned as we were supposed to be reducing the numbers a of badgers in our runs not increasing them. We didn’t expect them to leave right away but we certainly didn’t expect them to bring home some more.

The release site is perfect even in deep snow it has an artificial stream  so water is abundant even in the freezing weather. They are fed at the moment and will be for approximately  twelve weeks until the  spring when  food is in abundance. We will then remove the extra food and continue to monitor .

Our chubby Clan are still very playful and are under no pressure to leave their release run. They are on the lower part of a hill and it is hoped they will make their final home on the hillside somewhere. I guess at this moment in time they are happy showing their new friends around their current sett.

We will keep you updated with their progress but for now we have done all we can. They are back where they belong and have a second chance.

We have named our two newcomers Peaches and Flash in honor the wonderful Brian May. Brian celebrates Queen’s 40th Birthday this year.

In honor of 40 years of Queen “Rocking Us”  we are going to name all the creatures, that find their way to our rescue, with names associated with Queen songs.  You can help us with this by going to this page Click Here

Badger can live up to 20 years in captivity and  average 15 years  in the wild so we are hoping to get a glimpse of this happy Clan for some time to come. We love them and miss them and wish them well.

Happy New Year from the Volunteers at Harper Asprey Wildlife Rescue!

In 2011 we hope to bring you more wildlife news, keep you up-to-date on issues important to wildlife in the United Kingdom and have many more photos and articles about our rescues! We plan to also bring you articles about the “lighter side” of wildlife rescue including success stories and hints/tips on how you can help the wonderful animals with which we share this earth!

Stay Tuned!

In the meantime, here is a re-cap of some of our wildlife guests in 2010 in video format.

It has been a busy year at Harper Asprey, but we continue to help the spectacular wildlife  in the United Kingdom with our concern and commitment.

We would also like to thank you, the public, for your support.

From the volunteers at Harper Asprey Wildlife Rescue and News of the Wild, we wish you a wonderful holiday filled with joy, peace  and love….and healthy wildlife!

In this kind of snow and cold, animals living in the wild may not have their regular food sources available to them.

If you have particular animals that visit your garden in the winter, read our information on what to feed our wildlife to help sustain them through this and other cold snaps.

Please try to keep some unfrozen water available for wildlife. Dehydration kills.

If you need specific advice on animals at this time of the year, do not hesitate to contact us.

At a recent Christmas Fair we had a young girl come to our stall and help us. Her name was Bea and she was full of beans and very interested in wildlife. She was with her au pair and wanted to know about homing hedgehogs and other animals. You could tell she had a passion and understanding for animals. We told her to ask her Mummy and Daddy.

She helped sell some soft toys and more importantly found me some awesome vegan chocolate. We gave her a small t-shirt for all her hard work. I told her that a very famous and wonderful rock star would be coming to the fair and our stall and when he arrived we would ask him to sign her shirt. I told her his name was Brian May and the group he was in was called Queen. To which the lovely angel replied, “My Dad was in a group. His name is (and she spelled it out) P.A.U.L.M.C.C.A.R.T.N.E.Y!” I wouldn’t say I was trumped but it’s about as close as it gets! Bea was with her mother, Heather Mills. After meeting Heather I can see where a lot of Bea’s passion and strength comes from.

I think I am pretty confident that this young lady will be following on the family tradition of protecting animals with a clear vision of humanity and its role.

This week has had its usual ups and downs. As so often happens the wildlife features in the ups and the humans in the downs. A phone call one Friday night alerted us to a deer that had been hit by a car. The young buck was hit so hard that his antlers were torn from his head and his back leg had lost most of the skin that covered his muscles.  The driver who caused the impact looked back and drove off. Fortunately for the deer, the car behind stopped and put the dazed deer in a puppy crate he just happened to have. The deer arrived and was immediately treated by the vet. His wounds were flushed and stitched and he was then placed in a heated stable with plenty of brambles, goat food, water and two feet of hay. Deer are timid creatures and are very wary of us, they seem to shock faster than most other patients and our care is fast and short.  In the case of deer rehab “leaving alone” is the key to recovery. The young buck now named Rudolf is doing remarkably well.

The following day, Saturday, we received another call. It was similar situation but this time the callous motorist stopped, picked up the twitching deer and threw him in a ditch by his hooves! The caring motorist behind got out of his car and challenged the inhumane driver who was abusive and got in his car and drove off.  The kind follower called for help and after a long wait the poor deer was finally put to sleep.

On Wednesday we received a call from a lady who had seen a Muntjac fawn chased by a Labrador. The Labrador “was only playing” his owner said but his play resulted in a snap on the back calf of the fawn and so much flesh was removed we were unable to stitch or repair in any way so the tiny creature was put to sleep.

The next morning at 7.30 am another dog walker called. His two dogs had chased a deer into a barbed wire fence. The deer cut his neck badly and had two breaks.  Again she was put to sleep. This is not something we do lightly and it is extremely stressful for all involved as we simply couldn’t help. The Labrador owner was visibly shaken by the actions of her dog but by then it was too late. Dogs need to be kept under control.  If we hadn’t been able to corner the Muntjac she would still be out there slowly dying of infection and pain.

Well Rudolph our roe Buck is doing well and is now nearly healed so over the next few weeks he will return to the wild where he belongs thanks to a very kind motorist.



Visit the volunteers of Harper Asprey Wildlife Rescue at Animal Aid’s Christmas Fayre 2010

Sunday 5th December 2010

Kensington Town Hall, Hornton Street, London, W8

From 10am until 5pm.

We will have lots of lovely Harper Asprey Wildlife Rescue and Save Me T shirts, mugs and badges, which make lovely Christmas gifts! Visit us and pick up that special gift for the wildlife lover in your life – or treat yourself!

Even though we are not mentioned on the floor plan, we WILL be there — we hope to see YOU there!

Mercedes Benz (or Ben for short), the male mute swan, was spotted by the security cameras at Mercedes World in Brooklands late on a Sunday night. He was on the wrong side of the railway tracks. An eagle-eyed security man named Darren spotted the injured swan moving towards the train tracks. Ben was finding it very hard to stand and was stumbling.

The £500k plus cars at Mercedes World were temporarily unprotected while all eyes and cameras were on the distressed swan!

Male mute swans usually weigh around 12kg so there is a lot of weight on those legs and once weak the swan really is in trouble.

Mutes eat around 4kg of aquatic vegetation each day along with small fish, frogs and insects and lots of water so once stranded out of water they will become weak and dehydrated and unable to fly.  At this stage they are very vulnerable to predators.

Ben didn’t have the 45 meters of clear runway to take off and get him to safety and was clearly in pain and getting weak.

Darren called us for help. When we arrived Jamie and Darren had already scaled the railway fence and captured the injured giant.

Ben had a deep wound in his chest and was very dehydrated. He drank over two gallons of water on arrival and ate a whole bowl of lettuce, brown bread and wheat.

He was clearly used to being fed by humans and was relaxed but found our rescue centre a strange place to be. He was treated and confined to sterile baths for a week and after a course of antibiotics he was raring to go.

Swans pair for life and it may be that Ben’s mate was killed when he was injured but we just didn’t know.

With this in mind we started to try and find Ben’s mate and his home. The average life of a swan in the wild can be up to 8 years but they can live for 20 years. They also get depressed on their own and it was important to get Ben fit and well and back where he belonged. We tried to find a mate at the nearest pond to his accident but couldn’t, so after a lot of searching of both soul and ponds we released him with a whole flock at Windsor.  He shot into the water with such enthusiasm and rolled and splashed for ages.

He will probably rest for a while there and then resume searching for a partner. We wish him luck; he is now back where he belongs thanks to the guys at Mercedes World.  Well Done!

I attended one of  The Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) Science and Conservation Events last night at the London Zoo with Brian May.

The debate was billed as: Is the coalition government’s proposal for a ‘SCIENCE-LED PROGRAMME OF BADGER CONTROL’ an effective way to reduce tuberculosis in cattle? The speakers were:

Professor Bob Watson – Chief Scientific Adviser, Defra;
Professor Christl Donnelly – Imperial College London;
Dr Rosie Woodroffe – Institute of Zoology, ZSL; and
Professor Quintin McKellar – Principal, Royal Veterinary College.

This meeting was chaired by Andrew George, a Liberal MP from a farming community. As a rebel who voted against the coalition government and whose outspoken comments often get him in trouble, he didn’t disappoint! His opening speech was a startlingly honest address. He said that the government decision was not usually science based but had a little bit of guesswork back-filled with policy pressure. He also reiterated at the end of the meeting that he didn’t believe the government would listen to the public or the science and that the badger cull would go ahead. He was against the cull.

The science was presented and the government took out the bits they wanted and ignored the bits they didn’t.  To a year 9 student the problem stares you in the face and the clue is in the titles. Bovine Tb is a bovine disease spread by bovines and unless we halt the spread by stopping cattle movements it will continue to spread. No single solution can prevent the spread and no effective group of solutions has been shown to work.

Bovine Tb has been sweeping across the country from the west over the last 10 years at an alarming rate.  The strange thing is that the badgers haven’t been migrating but interestingly enough cattle have been tripping from county to county.

It seems the farmers are to be given license to kill badgers on their own land if they reach the required criteria.  No one knew what hoops the farmers would have to jump through to be able to take a pot shot at a badger. The density and low slung body of a badger doesn’t make him good for shooting. The rifle velocity would need to be immense to kill him outright, so injury would be high along with a slow death and a miss….well that could see the bullet end up in the next county.  This unproven method of badger control is weak at best and downright dangerous at worst. It’s a health and safety issue of monumental proportions with the highest possible risk.

I asked during the evening what measures they would impose on these “gun slinging” farmers and why they were basing it on “theory” whist ignoring the scientific data. They mumbled about “models being science” but with selective input, the models are no more than guesstimates. “Lies, damn lies and statistics” springs to mind.

Professor John Bourne who headed the research of the previous culls spoke from the floor on the subject at length and had no confidence in the government interpretation and rejections of his clearly compiled and detailed research. He was given no answers to his concerns.

There was little reference to this cattle trafficking being stopped.

All the scientific nous, 11,000 dead badgers, (that’s 8.9km of dead badgers) thirty trial culls and  yet  no movement halt for the farmers.

Brian stood up and said that as a human being he found the cull unacceptable morally, as they were solving a man made issue by sacrificing our wildlife. As a scientist he was horrified that the science wasn’t there to back up this mass slaughter. Brian has really raised the profile of the badger cull issue and has vowed to continue to fight the cull.

This is bargain basement government handing down cheap quick fixes with guessed outcomes based on assumption after assumption. It is pointless and reckless. The sacrificial badger is being presented as the solution when he is merely an innocent bystander infected by the cattle time and time again as the cattle move from county to county. The badger is being hung out to dry as the scapegoat because his carcass is worthless! Anyone who can read the data will see the truth.

I just hope our coalition government does the right thing but my confidence is not high at the moment.

For even more information on the badger cull, please visit  Brian’s  Save Me page.

Oscar the Little Owl arrived with us after spending a few days in a chimney in Egham. The lady who found him heard scratching a few days before and forgot about it. Having a busy toddler takes your mind off things!  When she heard the scratching a few days later she knew to investigate.

As first she thought it was a baby owl. The tiny creature stood 6 just inches tall, weighed 150g and was the smallest owl she had ever seen!

Little Owls arrived here in the 1890s from Holland. They are such characters. They are one of our few diurnal owls.  A diurnal animal is one that is active in the daytime. Their diet consists of insects, moths, caterpillars, beetles and garden birds. They are characterized by their grumpy faces and bobbing heads.

Oscar was very thin when we removed him from the fireplace and he was very dehydrated. We gave him one of Hazel’s magic potions; after a few days his weight was good and he was returned to his home.

Oscar is a very fit owl which means he is able to fend for himself well and could have a partner so it’s important that he is returned to the hunting territory he knows.

Over the last few years we have seen an increase in these little birds. Their distinctive call and daylight activities make it possible to catch a glimpse of them. They often return to the same nesting place each year so if you have them treasure them.

Their grumpy face is a quirk of nature and not a reflection of the personality of this very entertaining and adorable  Little Owl!