Little Foxes

From Winter 2012/2013: A Red Kite Visitor   As you can see from the image, we had a magnificent patient last year, a glorious red kite.   The bird was found in a collapsed state in a field, and was brought over to us the same day.   Bodily there did not seem to be any problem, but the bird was incapable of standing up at all. I know that red kites have a defence technique that involves them feigning death by lying prone, but even when the rescuer reached out and picked up the kite, it did not react. My conclusion was that the bird seemed to be concussed.  I hoped and prayed that there would be no further complications, indicative of poisoning, as some birds of prey are so detested by ignorant bloodsporters and a few others, that they are killed illegally sometimes.  Poisoning is not uncommon. To my relief, the kite seemed a little better the following day, and with warmth and care, continued to improve.  I administered fluids for a couple of days, then gently force fed the bird with a little food, and after that the bird started to feed quite eagerly, taking the food by himself with no trouble. He graduated into an aviary, and after a couple of weeks more for him to strengthen, during which time the sight of him took my breath away again and again, so beautiful a sight was he, I released him to join the other kites that are numerous in my village.  I provided food on the top of the aviary for a while, but he left us a strong and magnificent bird, and I have no doubt he picked up the threads of his life with no difficulty.

From Summer 2012: Moonraker the leveret It has been my privilege this year to rear a beautiful little leveret.  Moonraker came in having been found near a barn, in a dangerous situation as a large wedding reception was being held that afternoon at the barn.  I was concerned that this very young hare may not in fact be an orphan, as leverets are left hidden in the grass by their mothers for long periods, but when he arrived, I could see and feel that he was underweight, and I think he was a genuine orphan. I was lucky that he took fairly quickly to being hand fed, probably because he was very hungry.   Leverets are notoriously difficult and tricky animals to deal with, and can die unexpectedly at any time during the process.  Thankfully Moonraker behaved pretty straightforwardly, and was a pure delight from start to finish.    There is just something about hares.  It is very difficult to put into words, but it is obvious that many people are aware of it, because the hare has been a creature of legend for centuries, and the hare goddess Oestre in pagan beliefs was the goddess of fertility and the Moon.  Hares have always been linked to the Moon, and the myths and legends that surround hares are very beautiful. They are worth looking up and reading about. The hare is of course another animal that bloodsports barbarians love to hunt and kill.  The disparity between the absolute beauty, intelligence and vulnerability of wild animals, and the depravity and brutality of those that harm them, is absolute, and hard for the mind to grasp. I hope the photographs will go some way to showing what an utterly delightful animal this little hare was.  It was my privilege to look after him and give him the help he needed. Once again, never forget that we can only do this work because of the help and support we get from our loyal friends - i.e. YOU! Moonraker on release

From Spring 2012: Crows are cool! The crows are another of those species that some people choose to dislike, but the crow family is actually one of the most fascinating of all.   They are extremely intelligent, and the young of such species as jackdaws, magpies and crows are very interesting to watch at the close quarters involved when you are hand rearing them. They are noisy, demanding, and have plenty of attitude.  Their intelligence comes through from the earliest days, and their development is very interesting to observe.  They also have a range of crooning noises in addition to the well know squawks, and although these are very difficult to describe, they make you laugh out loud when you hear them.  They seem to be talking to one another.  They also make a very comical noise when fed, a sort of indignant, gulping chatter as the food goes down, which is one of the annual joys for those of us who hand feed young corvids.  It is really comical, unique to the corvids, and can win over anyone who is not already a fan! One of my fondest memories is of a young jay I hand reared who automatically starting mimicking sounds – before he went on release he could do a perfect imitation of my neighbour calling her cat, and also could mimic my sneeze to perfection.  Brilliant!

From Autumn 2007: Hedgehog Heroes The humble hedgehog does not always get the appreciation it deserves.  Here are a few stories of recent hedgehog visitors that show how heroic and stoic they really are. 1.  A Devoted Mother It’s a bit much when you have laboured diligently to prepare a nice snug nest for your forthcoming youngsters, gone through the business of giving birth to them, and just a couple of days later, find your whole world turned literally upside-down by some busybody humans.    Meg, a hedgehog currently resident at Little Foxes, found herself in just this frightening situation a few weeks ago.  She had spent ages collecting grass and scraps of plastic and material together into a nest, and then some people decided to tidy up their garden and pulled the whole thing out of its snug position amongst some tree roots.  They certainly didn’t mean to, of course,  but the result was one adult and three very tiny hedgehogs in a cardboard box arriving at Little Foxes.    The little family was put into a roomy cage and a very watchful eye was kept on them to see if the mother rejected or attacked her youngsters due to the disturbance she had suffered.  A mere hour after arrival, distinct sounds of suckling could be heard.  Two days later they were moved into an outside pen, with a new nest (much inferior to the old one as it had been made by a mere human) and left to their own devices, apart from hearty meals provided for this devoted mother hedgehog.    Only a couple of checks have been made on the babies, as the least possible disturbance is caused in such situations, but a  week ago they were checked again, and the babies are now fat and toothy and looking very good indeed.  Soon they will no longer need their mother, and she will want to go off on her own again, so she will be released and the babies will be kept here until at a releasable weight.  The stoicism and maternal devotion of this mother has been heart warming to witness.  She has coped with adversity and fear, and just got on with the job of looking after her brood.  (STOP PRESS:  ALL FOUR HEDGEHOGS NOW RELEASED.) 2. I am not a rat - I am a hedgehog Also currently resident at Little Foxes is Rat-trap, so called (perhaps not very tactfully) because she got caught in a lethal rat trap.  I hate these contraptions, and I think they  (and snares) should be outlawed along with gin traps as horrible examples of human brutality.    Poor old Rat-trap was minding her own business foraging about at night and no doubt decided to investigate whatever bait had been put in the trap.  When she arrived here after Richard, our helper, collected her, I was disappointed to find that the householder had not done as I asked and brought her indoors away from the flies, and consequently she was not only injured, but also covered in fly eggs.  I removed all of these before they turned into maggots and started eating her alive.  She was given fluids and an antibiotic injection, and placed in a warm cage to recover. That little hedgehog has doggedly got on with life, although at first unable to stand up properly withough keeling over onto her side.  She attacked her food bowl with a sideways motion that worked very well, and likewise a drink of water went in sideways.  She  progressed within two weeks to being able to walk around her cage with only, now, the occasional fall onto her side, quickly corrected.  Whether she will fully recover remains to be seen - I doubt it myself, and I expect her to retain a  degree of nerve damage.  If so, she will stay as a permanent resident at Little Foxes, very probably under the protective wing of Sue, one of our fosterers, who has other permanent hogs in her care. 3.  Plastic hurts The final one of our three heroes, who are just examples of many of their kind, is a little chap who had not even reached maturity before he fell foul of human filth and lack of concern.  He is just one of the thousands of animals that get caught in plastic waste - in his case it was a ring of plastic from the top of a drinks can.  (These should always be snipped into pieces before disposal so that they cause no harm).  This hog was taken by his rescuer into a vets, where the ring was removed, and he was then passed on to us.  He had a deep welt across his stomach where the plastic had cut into him.  His spines had protected his back from similar damage.    Despite having an infected wound stretching from side to side of his tum, he carried on regardless, eating and growing well while time and antibiotics healed the wound.    He is now very close to release, restored and repaired.

From Winter 2007: Hedgehogs Flock In You may have read reports in the newspapers about the numbers of late baby hedgehogs being taken in by sanctuaries, and Little Foxes is no exception. Although this is being interpreted as another sign of global warming, in fact it does happen every year.  Hedgehogs always produce late-season babies that, illogically, have little or no chance of putting on enough fat to survive hibernation.  Having said that, this year we have taken in a record number of these little critters, and have, as always, seen a fair number of them succumb, despite all our loving care. Nevertheless we still have a good number of these to release in the spring, to swell the numbers of this apparently diminishing species.  Undoubtedly hedgehogs are suffering badly as our summers become increasingly hot and dry.  It cannot be said often enough how important it is for us all to put out food and water every night during periods of drought to help these little animals survive. I have one poor old chap here with me who came in suffering from horrible injuries caused by a strimmer (something I would love to ban!).  He was cut around his ears and face, but thankfully his eyes survived unscathed, and he still has a nose, unlike some of the strimmer victims I have seen.  He has been here for many weeks, and is very slowly but surely repairing and recovering.  He eats well and seems a placid sort of chap. Despite the hedgehog tendency to expire for many mysterious and hidden reasons, some can cope with and survive truly horrendous injuries.  Many is the maggot-infested, infection-ridden hedgehog victim that has caused me to shake my head in horror and pity, that has stoically and matter of factly got on with life and recovered. Sometimes they co-operate as little as possible with us, their well intentioned carers, as we try and tend a tightly curled up ball of prickles who seems determined to hang on to every wriggly maggot and every speck of malodorous pus, but, hey, perseverance is our middle name here.

From Summer 2007: Buzzard Baby One wet Sunday a call came through from two ladies who had found a very bedraggled baby buzzard on the roadside.  Until the bird actually arrived, I was doubtful if it really was a buzzard, as it is easy for people to misidentify birds, but sure enough they were right. I was suspicious about how this poor bird came to be in such trouble, as it was found near a very large shooting estate, and we all know that, despite their protected legal status, birds of prey are still unlawfully killed by gamekeepers sometimes. She was far too young to be out of the nest, and I wondered how both parents had managed to disappear, leaving a very distressed baby to struggle out of the nest and wander onto the road. It might have been otherwise, I don’t know, and never will. The baby buzzard was wet, cold and very thin indeed. Further examination revealed a squirming mass of maggots on the top of the head, and another on the side of the throat. Fluids were administered, the bird was relieved of its maggots and the wounds cleaned, an antibiotic administered (as maggot infestations invariably result in mucky infection in the wound site), and the bird was placed in a heated cage. She was fed mainly rehydrating fluid for the first evening, moving on then to tiny pieces of food, and finally to a normal amount of food as her body became capable of dealing with it...