Wildlife First Response

01/09/2026

Interesting. What do we think? I once wrote to Aberdeenshire Council about wildlife road signs for a particular stretch of road and they told me “no-one looks at road signs”. I actually have a spreadsheet of all the wildlife road signs in Scotland and their exact locations.

Scotland still has no small animal road warning signs, even though it's been two years since England brought them in. Campaigners are calling on the Scottish Parliament to introduce them in areas with high hedgehog populations.

26/08/2026

❤️

22/08/2026

And this is why glue traps are totally barbaric. This is devastating. Look at this beautiful creature reduced to a skeleton.

No video today unfortunately. I had recorded some bits over the last few days but editing takes time and things have been really hectic.

And I'm sad this morning, because despite our best efforts and the efforts of the team at South Lincs Vet Group Ltd, this Barn Owl lost his fight last night.

He came to us on Wednesday after being caught in a glue trap. In all honesty I can't think of many more unpleasant deaths than being trapped in glue and either suffocating or starving to death. I don't know why anyone uses them still.

He was found at taken to Sutterton Vets where the team washed him and tried to get as much of the glue off as possible, before transferring him to us.

We then had to apply oil to help break down the glue and then give him another bath to wash that off. There are so many risk factors in a case like this and we covered as many bases as we possibly could. He was eating well, passing pellets and was kept warm in the incubator. Because if his baths, his feathers had been stripped of their natural oils and he was no longer waterproof or able to keep himself warm, hence the need for the incubator.

Unfortunately we can never know if he ingested any of the glue or ate something with glue on it, or if the stress was all too much for him.

But please let this be a reminder to everyone that glue traps are illegal to use in the UK and have been since 2022. We still see a handful of cases every year though. And they're always absolutely heartbreaking.

🌈💚 Fly high Owlie, sorry we couldn't save you.

18/08/2026

Let me be very clear - badger haters stuck in generational myths surrounding bTB will be reported and blocked. This is not the page for you.

Quietly lying there, looking beautifully untouched.

You were just trying to reach your sett, dear friend, when a vehicle caught you by surprise and took your life.

Or maybe they didn’t take your life but showed utter disregard for it and left you lying there to slowly ebb away in pain.

We’re sorry, big Brock. You deserved much better.

14/08/2026

Another unnecessary loss yesterday.
Huge thanks to​ the caring members of public who called Gloucestershire Badger Group who then contacted us. We attended but sadly she had passed.

She was this year's cub with no visible injuries, most likely dehydrated and unable to find food. This hot weather creates huge challenges for badgers whose main source of food is worms, as the dry hard ground makes foraging nearly impossible.

Gloucestershire Badger Group and Cotswold Hunt Sabs continue to feed and water local wildlife, with trail cameras monitoring setts at risk of interference.

​Please put out water to help local wildlife
you can save lives 🙏

​RIP beautiful girl

Please consider supporting us. Every donation goes directly towards helping us continue protecting local wildlife 🦡🦊🐇🐾

Gloucestershire Badger Group (GBG) is made up of voluntary members throughout the county whoose common interest is the Protection of badgers. They rely entirely on volunteers and public donations to carry out their badger welfare and conservation work.
https://gloucestershirebadgergroup.org/

Thanks to all our supporters 💚

We’re getting our vehicle ready for the new season, which is coming up so🍂
🦊 Keep us informed: 07882 057415
🦊 Share to raise awareness
🦊 Chuck us a few quid: PayPal.me/CotswoldHuntSabs
🦊 Or support us here: https://ko-fi.com/cotswoldhuntsabs
Anything you donate goes towards vehicle costs and fuel ⛽

Help keep us in the fields if you can 💚

13/08/2026

It’s constant and relentless.

Just nicely off to sleep when the emergency badger phone started ringing ☎️📞💤😴
It was 1.00am and the caller Tom had spotted an injured badger at the roadside, and he kindly stayed with her whilst we quickly made our way to him 🦡😔
It was a fast and dimly lit road 🛻 so with hazards on and wearing hi viz we unloaded our gear whilst she was watched over by Tom. She caught us all by surprise as suddenly using her front legs she managed to drag herself through a thick Hawthorne hedge 🍁and tumbled down a steep banking into a drainage gully below
Now the rescue was twice as difficult, but Tom was very hands on and using our torches 🔦🔦we located her about 15 feet down the steep banking.
We carefully lowered the cage down and in doing so lost our car keys 🔑along the way! so a frantic search ensued amongst the spiky bushes and rubbish; thankfully, we found the keys and then carefully hauled the cage complete with injured badger back up to the road 🦡❤️‍🩹
Sadly, on examination at the vets, she was found to be paralysed and was put to sleep immediately 💤
We thought we were done for the night 🌙 but were almost home when another call came in about an RTA a few miles away, so we cut across country and met an ambulance complete with flashing lights 🚑protecting a very large male badger who had sadly already passed 😞
We thanked the ambulance crew and laid him to rest over a wall in a nearby woodland 🌳and we finally arrived home at 3.30am 🌙
What a night and one of us had to be up early for work the next day, not me thank goodness and all in nights badgering

10/08/2026

09/08/2026

I’m sorry, big fella, that you didn’t make it back to your sett in Cromarty, and many people drove past you and turned a blind eye, or didn’t care enough to stop to check if you were alive and needed help.

You meant something to me, and you’re now resting in dignity and peace.

This was not a ‘fast’ road. It was a slow country road. Please watch out & brake for badgers. If you do have an accident, please do what you can to get the right help for the animal. Call your local wildlife rescue for advice. Here it would be Highland Wildlife Rescue

Sleep tight, big fella.

(The AI is simply the colouration of the flowers on the black and white image).