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The Origin of the Mersea Island Red Squirrels Approximately 15 years ago Wildlives was approached by Lady Sylvia Morrow, who had been keeping two pet female red squirrels. She wanted them to go to a good home, so offered them to Wildlives. As Wildlives is a rescue centre with the aim of releasing animals back into the wild, rather than a captive sanctuary, Rosie came up with the idea of starting a breeding program with the two females. The long term aim would be to release red squirrels back into the wild. Rosie contacted David Stapleford, of the Red Squirrel Conservation Trust and the National Red Squirrel Captive Breeding Program at Pensthorpe in Fakenham (East Anglia branch). There were long discussions to make the plan a reality, and an extremely large and expensive purpose-built enclosure was constructed, with ample room for exercise and natural behaviour, located in a very quiet and isolated part of the centre to minimise disturbance and human contact. Finally when all was ready, Lady Morrow’s two females arrived, and, once they had settled in, a male was carefully introduced from Pensthorpe in Fakenham. The male immediately mated with both females, to David’s amazement and joy – in 40 years of being a red squirrel champion he had never before seen them mating. Once the breeding program began to show success, Rosie became concerned about the planned release of the offspring; the favoured release site was Anglesey island, which has a thriving population of grey squirrels (which were being culled), and the survival rates of red squirrel there was not as high as had been hoped. Rosie then thought of Mersea Island, with its lack of a resident grey squirrel population, and thought it would be an ideal place to start a new red squirrel colony. After a couple of years of multiple phone calls and discussions involving David Stapleford, the head of the Red Squirrel Breeding Program at Pensthorpe, and Dougal Urquhart, the ranger at Cudmore Grove Country Park in East Mersea, all were agreed that Mersea island would be, as Rosie had thought, ideal for the new colony. Red squirrel boxes were set up in East Mersea and Rosie’s red squirrels were released there where they would be monitored under the auspices of David Stapleford. Since that time the red squirrels have flourished and thrived, and become an integral part of the island wildlife and culture. |
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| Hedgehog Warning
During
the lockdown period while so many people are gardening, here at Wildlives
Rescue & rehabilitation we have noticed a massive increase in the number
of hedgehogs sustaining injuries from strimmers and other gardening
equipment. The majority of
these injuries are so catastrophic as top require euthanasia. |
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Here is a poster that can be shared and printed in garden
equipment suppliers and websites. Please share Save Our Hedgehogs |
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Part Time Animal Care Supervisor required
For busy wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre The successful candidate will be: • Reliable • Committed to helping wildlife, conservation, the environment and animal welfare • Able to work under pressure in case of emergencies • Numerate and able to calculate animal drug dosages based on weight • Holder of a clean driving licence • Have a strong stomach and be able to deal with sometimes severe injuries • Willing to work both indoors in the animal hospital and outside, cleaning animal enclosures, performing maintenance tasks on outbuildings and animal pens, and helping maintain the 6 acres of animal habitat. • Able to work flexible hours, including bank holidays and weekends • Able and willing to take advantage of the full on-the-job training that will be given. • Scrupulous about maintaining strict hygiene protocols A competitive salary is available for the right candidate. Please apply in writing to: Wildlives Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, Frating Road, Thorrington, CO7 8HT Any communications received other than by post will be disregarded. |
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