16 adorable pictures of prickly pals at Hedgehog Rescue Blackpool

An incredible Blackpool charity that looks after sick and injured hedgehogs has launched a fundraising appeal to keep its services going.

Hedgehog Rescue Blackpool has grown from nothing to having a purpose built centre - complete with recovery pods and incubators to look after the prickly creatures that end up in their care. But they need more money and have launched a £5,000 appeal.

It all started in 2015 when Jean Turner began helping sick and injured hedgehogs in her home on a very small scale. She has now retired and her position was filled by Claire Adamson - originally a foster volunteer and now the charity’s co-ordinator who started out with an old rabbit hutch and lots of compassion for helping the wild animals.

Claire and a team of volunteers now nurse as many rescued hedgehogs as they can before offering them out for rehabilitation with fosterers, until they are fit enough to be released back into the wild.

Claire, who started her voluntary work after spotting a Facebook post recruiting fosterers, said: “We now have 51 pods and we take in poorly hedgehogs that need care with medication. We have a 50-60% success rate, we do our best to save them but some don’t always survive.

“We try to help as much as we can, sometimes we can work 18 hour shifts a day. Hedgehogs are nocturnal so if they are out in the day, they are usually not okay. They should be placed in a high-sided box and contact us where we can advise. But they are wild animals and mustn’t be kept as pets.”

Hedgehogs are listed as vulnerable on Britain’s red list and that is because a loss of nesting and foraging area. Nationwide, a third have been lost since 2000 due to habitat loss, fragmentation fences cutting of their routes and road casualties. In this year alone, Hedgehog Rescue Blackpool has already taken in 200 hedgehogs.

Lisa Ponton is a fostering volunteer. She said: “It’s amazing, it’s giving something back - they are poorly, helpless creatures and we can nurse them and fatten them up to go back in the wild. They are characters, none of them are the same. Some are very compliant and come out for food and care straight away whilst others huff, puff and stomp!”

• make ponds safe with a sloped side or ramp
• lift netting
• check before using garden tools such as forks & strimmers
• provide chicken flavoured cat biscuits and shallow dishes of water
• Stop using chemicals
• build bonfires just before they are lit and before hedgehogs use them as shelter

Claire added: “A huge thank you to all our volunteers for the fabulous work they do and a massive thank you to our supporters for their generosity in helping fund and kit out of the new rehabilitation centre in Out Rawcliffe.

See here to donate - Hedgehog Rescue Blackpool