Student placement at Secret World Wildlife Rescue: Saving the world via hedgehogs

Secret World Wildlife Rescue works to rescue, rehabilitate and release sick, injured and orphaned wildlife. They began in 1984 in Highbridge, Somerset. Starting with just badgers, they have gradually expanded to include many other native UK wildlife rescuing 5,000 wild animals and taking 12,000 calls per year. They are a charity organisation with only a small team of staff, relying heavily on generous, wildlife-loving volunteers and student placements. 

Doing my part 

I carried out an unpaid placement, working 9-hour shifts, three days a week. Shifts varied between daytime and evening; and working in the animal hospital and the release pens. My main jobs involved fully disinfecting and spot cleaning a range of different types of enclosures – from large tawny owl aviaries through to orphan hedgehog incubators and badger pens. During this kind of work, adhering to strict DEFRA legislation surrounding biosecurity, wearing appropriate PPE and maintaining hygiene practice is of major importance to prevent the spread of zoonotic disease. Notifiable diseases such as rabies, avian influenza and bovine tuberculosis are taken very seriously at Secret World. I had to wear full PPE, use barrier nursing methods and follow quarantine protocols whilst working. I learnt a lot about how to protect myself and prevent the spread of disease within a high risk environment.  

Over the summer months, orphaned chicks make up a major proportion of Secret World’s residents. My role involved feeding and hand-rearing the young birds and animals. Depending on age and species, neonatal birds can need to be fed up to every half an hour. Species that gape (open their mouths for the parent to feed them) were fed on baby bird mix, mealworms or wax worms. Pigeon chicks were the exception and where cropped fed (fed via a tube directly into their crop). Whenever wild animals are involved, there is a large health and safety concern. Injured, sick and frightened animals will react unpredictably. During my placement I was able to learn the correct handling techniques and how to react quickly to avoid injuring myself and the animal. I found that over the two-month placement my confidence and capability in animal handling improved massively.  

Interesting things I saw 

A large part of wildlife rescue is responding to calls from panicked members of the public desperate to help a wild animal they have found. Secret World has an animal ambulance which is kitted out with a variety of animal handling equipment such as nets, snatch poles, animal carriers and personal safety equipment, such as thick gloves, safety helmet and disposable aprons. I got to see some of this equipment in action when shadowing staff and other volunteers on ambulance call-outs. One call-out in particular involved a pipistrelle bat found resting on the pavement in daytime (this is not where they are meant to be). After finding a rabies vaccinated responder to handle the bat, it was scooped up using cloth bat gloves to protect the animal’s skin, and to protect staff from rabies, and taken back to Secret World’s hospital facility. Examination of the wings and joints is fairly simple in bats as they have such thin skin. In this case no fractures or skin tears were found, just bruising in which case the bat was treated and rehabilitated in the hospital rooms.

During my time at Secret World, I witnessed many different reasons for admission. A very small proportion of intakes were due to disease and naturally occurring injury but shockingly, most, if not all, animal admissions were due to human hindrance. Road traffic accidents, farming equipment collisions, being caught in netting or fencing and pet dogs disturbing and attacking nests were some of the most common reasons for people to call in about hedgehogs, hares, badgers, foxes and birds. During my placement, the very popular Glastonbury festival was happening just 20 miles away. The loud music, hoards of people and the temporary set-up of stages and tents just days after it had been a quiet and safe field, disturbed a nest of owl chicks. They were found during the GunsN’Roses set and were named after the band members. This is just one of the thousands of examples of cases where wildlife suffers due to human hindrance and wildlife rescues are called upon to pick up the pieces. I followed the owlets’ rehabilitation at Secret World until, thankfully, they were given the all clear and released in September, two months after they were found.  

My summer placement was an incredible opportunity to get an insight into the ups and downs of wildlife rescue and rehabilitation. I was able to greatly improve my communication and problem-solving skills, as well as gaining masses of confidence in handling techniques I had never previously needed to use. Working in this kind of organisation was a valuable experience for opening my eyes to a range of possibilities and meeting many professionals within this area of work. I can’t wait to see what I get up to in my next work placement.

Find out more about BSc (Hons) Animal Behaviour and the placement opportunities available through the Faculty of Science Placement Learning Support Unit to see where our exciting degrees could take you.