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Secret World Wildlife Rescue is the largest Badger Cub Rearing Unit in the country but they also help over 4000 wildlife casualties every year. This is where Patch was to move to once he had been helped by Derek Barry in Uttlesford.
Patch was collected by Pauline Kidner on 18th May 2008. She had already collected a cub called Nipper that had been found in Lincolnshire. When she arrived at the house of Derek Barry, because the cubs were of a similar age and would be joining the same family of cubs back at Secret World, the two cubs were put together in a cage for the final journey to Secret World Wildlife Rescue (SWWR) in Somerset.
People often remark that badgers should not be transported long distances due to stress. This has never been the case in all badger movements as far as Pauline is concerned and the fact that she had to put up with the noise of the two cubs playing together for most of the journey home certainly confirmed her feelings on the matter!
Badger cubs that need bottle feeding are often kept in Pauline’s kitchen at Secret World until they wean, but then move to one of the many casualty pens in the Millie Building, most of which have attached grassed enclosures for the cubs to go out into once they are old enough. Because both of these male cubs were already weaned they were put in pen 5 with four other badger cubs. There were two females called Foxglove and Butler and a male cub called Cheeky which came from Rogers Wildlife Rescue near Brighton. The other male cub came from the Vale Wildlife Rescue in Gloucester.
The pen had tree trunks for the cubs to play with, hanging sack bags to barge and play with and pipes that they could run through. A wooden box filled with hay was the ‘sett’ for the cubs and a camera allowed monitoring of the cubs to ensure that all were feeding and that no one was getting bullied! Fortunately because each year between 40 and 50 badger cubs are reared at Secret World the cubs can be put into groups that are approximately the same size and evenly sexed if possible — sadly there is usually more boys than girls.
Cubs come to Secret World Wildlife from all over the country because they will go through a protocol of testing for Bovine TB to ensure that as much as possible, only healthy badgers are released back into the wild. The cubs in Patch’s group had already had their first test so the next day Patch and Nipper had their first blood test and were micro-chipped so that it was possible to always identify each cub. All cubs are also given a parvo virus innoculation to protect them.
Nipper and Patch soon joined in with the rest of the cubs. Sometimes when new cubs are added to the group, they will sleep separately in a corner (Having pinched some hay from the box) and will integrate over a couple of days but both boys had no trouble making friends and all cubs were sleeping together from the first day.
When young and only just weaned the cubs will be given twice daily meals of esbilac milk with weetabix, cooked chicken, sausages, custard creams and other titbits. Once the group becomes nocturnal they are only fed at night and will be having dog food, dry complete food, peanuts, dead chicks, honey or jam sandwiches and any scraps that taste good!
Staff go in and clean the pen, first closing the box to stop the cubs coming out while they are in the pen as the badger cubs must learn to be wild and not to trust people. They are let out once the pen is cleaned and food will be put in at the end of the day.
Patch was fine but there were concerns with Nipper as he still came to the door on hearing people about and scratched for attention. Having had clear results on their first tb tests, it was soon time to give all the cubs in this group their second test — each test has to be at least one month apart.
It is at this stage, whilst they are under anaesthetic, that the badger cubs are tattooed on the inside of their back legs ( both sides). This carries the number of the cub, the year that they came in to care and a W to show they were animals that were cared for by SWWR. Hopefully if they are ever found again, it will be possible to find out how long they have survived in the wild. Patch was 1208W and Nipper was 1408W. Again all cubs came back negative and once put back into their pen, the badger gate was opened so that they now had access to the grassed paddock as well as their inside pen. Now they could experience grass to forage, a log pile for beetles and places to dig.
These enclosures have 3 metre fences with over hanging wire as well as being completely under wired about metre under ground to stop escapees. Expensive facilities! Now the cubs are only being fed after dark in the evenings and the behaviour needs to be that they shy away from humans. Nipper was still causing concern so he was moved to join another group in a larger free standing enclosure with an artificial sett that required no daily cleaning – meaning there was hardly any human contact at all.
2008 was a quieter year for badger cubs as only 38 were taken into care in that year but this still meant finding homes for 6 family groups. This is no easy task – to find land owners that have suitable habitats with few or no badgers at all with so much bad press about badgers always being reported. This is an annual problem to find homes for the cubs but it is hoped that by 2010 the badger vaccine should be available which hopefully will bring more confidence and homes offered to these orphaned animals.
By September all the cubs had been given their final TB test which included a late female cub that had arrived from the Vale Wildlife Rescue Centre. All that was needed was for their release site to be prepared ready for their arrival. Patch’s group were going for release to Surrey. This site had already been surveyed to ensure it was suitable and an artificial sett was already prepared. Sometimes artificial setts are built and other times land is found that have old rabbit holes or banks so that the badgers can dig their own sett. They are given a temporary sett of hay bales for the first few nights but they soon dig new homes and use the redundant hay bales for future bedding.
Volunteers from Secret World go to the site and create the sett and set up temporary electric fencing which will contain the cubs for a few weeks so that they will get used to their new home. This area will be approximately a minimum 20 metres square but is usually much larger allowing features such as scrub and trees to keep the cubs busy. Because of the problems encountered in 2008 when two release sites were not able to be used, releases were later and Patch had to wait until November before his group were to be transported to their final home. Nipper’s group was to wait a further month.
The land owner was happy to feed the badger cubs in their enclosure for the first few weeks until the electric fence was taken down. Now having more space to roam, the group of 3 male and 3 female cubs could forage and find their own food but supplement food was still left for them to ensure an easy transition to becoming wild. It is a long process from rearing a small cub to the day that it finally returns to the wild. This process of rehabilitation happens every year at Secret World Wildlife Rescue. This involves many people from the finder, carer, surveyor, landowners – as well as many people who donate to Secret World to make sure that their work can be carried out. I know two badgers that are really glad that people out there care for wildlife – Patch and Nipper – Good Luck guys!
Pauline Kidner
Charity Founder
Secret World Wildlife Rescue
t:01278 783250
f:01278 793109
pauline@secretworld.org
www.secretworld.org
Patch the badger cub.
Secret World Wildlife Rescue is the largest Badger Cub Rearing Unit in the country but they also help over 4000 wildlife casualties every year. This is where Patch was to move to once he had been helped by Derek Barry in Uttlesford.
Patch was collected by Pauline Kidner on 18th May 2008. She had already collected a cub called Nipper that had been found in Lincolnshire. When she arrived at the house of Derek Barry, because the cubs were of a similar age and would be joining the same family of cubs back at Secret World, the two cubs were put together in a cage for the final journey to Secret World Wildlife Rescue (SWWR) in Somerset.
People often remark that badgers should not be transported long distances due to stress. This has never been the case in all badger movements as far as Pauline is concerned and the fact that she had to put up with the noise of the two cubs playing together for most of the journey home certainly confirmed her feelings on the matter!
Badger cubs that need bottle feeding are often kept in Pauline’s kitchen at Secret World until they wean, but then move to one of the many casualty pens in the Millie Building, most of which have attached grassed enclosures for the cubs to go out into once they are old enough. Because both of these male cubs were already weaned they were put in pen 5 with four other badger cubs. There were two females called Foxglove and Butler and a male cub called Cheeky which came from Rogers Wildlife Rescue near Brighton. The other male cub came from the Vale Wildlife Rescue in Gloucester.
The pen had tree trunks for the cubs to play with, hanging sack bags to barge and play with and pipes that they could run through. A wooden box filled with hay was the ‘sett’ for the cubs and a camera allowed monitoring of the cubs to ensure that all were feeding and that no one was getting bullied! Fortunately because each year between 40 and 50 badger cubs are reared at Secret World the cubs can be put into groups that are approximately the same size and evenly sexed if possible — sadly there is usually more boys than girls.
Cubs come to Secret World Wildlife from all over the country because they will go through a protocol of testing for Bovine TB to ensure that as much as possible, only healthy badgers are released back into the wild. The cubs in Patch’s group had already had their first test so the next day Patch and Nipper had their first blood test and were micro-chipped so that it was possible to always identify each cub. All cubs are also given a parvo virus innoculation to protect them.
Nipper and Patch soon joined in with the rest of the cubs. Sometimes when new cubs are added to the group, they will sleep separately in a corner (Having pinched some hay from the box) and will integrate over a couple of days but both boys had no trouble making friends and all cubs were sleeping together from the first day.
When young and only just weaned the cubs will be given twice daily meals of esbilac milk with weetabix, cooked chicken, sausages, custard creams and other titbits. Once the group becomes nocturnal they are only fed at night and will be having dog food, dry complete food, peanuts, dead chicks, honey or jam sandwiches and any scraps that taste good!
Staff go in and clean the pen, first closing the box to stop the cubs coming out while they are in the pen as the badger cubs must learn to be wild and not to trust people. They are let out once the pen is cleaned and food will be put in at the end of the day.
Patch was fine but there were concerns with Nipper as he still came to the door on hearing people about and scratched for attention. Having had clear results on their first tb tests, it was soon time to give all the cubs in this group their second test — each test has to be at least one month apart.
It is at this stage, whilst they are under anaesthetic, that the badger cubs are tattooed on the inside of their back legs ( both sides). This carries the number of the cub, the year that they came in to care and a W to show they were animals that were cared for by SWWR. Hopefully if they are ever found again, it will be possible to find out how long they have survived in the wild. Patch was 1208W and Nipper was 1408W. Again all cubs came back negative and once put back into their pen, the badger gate was opened so that they now had access to the grassed paddock as well as their inside pen. Now they could experience grass to forage, a log pile for beetles and places to dig.
These enclosures have 3 metre fences with over hanging wire as well as being completely under wired about metre under ground to stop escapees. Expensive facilities! Now the cubs are only being fed after dark in the evenings and the behaviour needs to be that they shy away from humans. Nipper was still causing concern so he was moved to join another group in a larger free standing enclosure with an artificial sett that required no daily cleaning – meaning there was hardly any human contact at all.
2008 was a quieter year for badger cubs as only 38 were taken into care in that year but this still meant finding homes for 6 family groups. This is no easy task – to find land owners that have suitable habitats with few or no badgers at all with so much bad press about badgers always being reported. This is an annual problem to find homes for the cubs but it is hoped that by 2010 the badger vaccine should be available which hopefully will bring more confidence and homes offered to these orphaned animals.
By September all the cubs had been given their final TB test which included a late female cub that had arrived from the Vale Wildlife Rescue Centre. All that was needed was for their release site to be prepared ready for their arrival. Patch’s group were going for release to Surrey. This site had already been surveyed to ensure it was suitable and an artificial sett was already prepared. Sometimes artificial setts are built and other times land is found that have old rabbit holes or banks so that the badgers can dig their own sett. They are given a temporary sett of hay bales for the first few nights but they soon dig new homes and use the redundant hay bales for future bedding.
Volunteers from Secret World go to the site and create the sett and set up temporary electric fencing which will contain the cubs for a few weeks so that they will get used to their new home. This area will be approximately a minimum 20 metres square but is usually much larger allowing features such as scrub and trees to keep the cubs busy. Because of the problems encountered in 2008 when two release sites were not able to be used, releases were later and Patch had to wait until November before his group were to be transported to their final home. Nipper’s group was to wait a further month.
The land owner was happy to feed the badger cubs in their enclosure for the first few weeks until the electric fence was taken down. Now having more space to roam, the group of 3 male and 3 female cubs could forage and find their own food but supplement food was still left for them to ensure an easy transition to becoming wild. It is a long process from rearing a small cub to the day that it finally returns to the wild. This process of rehabilitation happens every year at Secret World Wildlife Rescue. This involves many people from the finder, carer, surveyor, landowners – as well as many people who donate to Secret World to make sure that their work can be carried out. I know two badgers that are really glad that people out there care for wildlife – Patch and Nipper – Good Luck guys!
Pauline Kidner
Charity Founder
Secret World Wildlife Rescue
t:01278 783250
f:01278 793109
pauline@secretworld.org
www.secretworld.org
