April '25 Has Been BUSY...

[This post has been written on the 1st May 2025, looking back on a very busy April...]

[*Before you read down to what we have been up to in April, you will notice that on this ‘UK Wildlife Transporters’ blog post I am featuring the 'Wildlife Care Badge' work/progress.  You may wonder, ‘why is that?’  The answer is…]

There’s no regulation of the wildlife rescue industry in Wales, England & Northern Ireland.  As UKWT is a transport network for wildlife, this has led to a lot of extra steps being put in place to ensure that we are always doing our best to take wildlife to places who CAN provide the right care.  See one of our proudest milestones shared in this BLOG POST.

The WCB is the ONLY current Wildlife Rescue map/database in the UK that features Wildlife Rescues who have proven standards of care, akin to actual licensing (annual onsite checks, exams on wildlife care passed & high welfare practices proven through record keeping and an ongoing vet relationship, every quarter throughout the year).

The WCB is only really getting started but it already provides the map from which UKWT can run…

[The UKWT funds the WCB because I - Alana - as well as founding & running UKWT, also founded and co-developed, amongst lots of Wildlife Rescues & Wildlife Veterinary Professionals, all of us working together, the WCB.  I did it in part because it was needed and in part because, without the WCB, UKWT would really struggle to know where we could safely take wildlife to, for guaranteed expert emergency care]

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Wildlife Care Badge work/progress… [Celebrating high welfare wildlife care AND ensuring that UKWT has a map to run off, without which we couldn’t even exist.]

THE WCB HOLDERS DATABASE IS GROWING: April is one of our regular WCB intake months for new WCB Holders.  Due to high demand (lots of new applicants) we extended this intake period into May too. 7 new WCB Holder Applicants (Rescues) have applied.  1 was super organised and got the WCB Badge for hedgehogs by the 4th of April: Greatfield Hedgehog Rescue.  2 have just passed their Knowledge Assessment step. 4 more are in the process of sitting the KA (one of whom has already also had their veterinary visit, for which I have received a report).

CELEBRATING GREAT WILDLIFE CARE (WCB KNOWLEDGE ASSESSMENTS): 4 WCB KA certificates have been awarded to volunteers with current WCB Holders: Alison, Samantha, Keri & Keyly.

WCB WEBINARS: We have organised and announced 2 new WCB Webinars, by Sarah Liney of Hedgehog Helpline - 'Wildlife Rescue Hubs & Rehab Fostering / Volunteering Tiers' - and Jon Beresford on ‘Health & Safety In The Wildlife Rescue Industry’.

[Our WCB Webinars are to help share knowledge within the industry, to help everyone to provide the best care to wildlife.  A mix of Veterinary Professionals, Rehabbers at very large centres and smaller Home Based Rescuers have all done webinars for us, so far, and it’s been brilliant.]

COMPASSION FATIGUE SUPPORT SESSIONS: We have announced our ‘Compassion Fatigue’ support sessions for 2025.  We have run CF Support Sessions for Rehabbers since 2021 and we have had a lot of feedback on how helpful they are.  I run them myself and they will run every Sunday evening (they started on the 20th April) through this year’s spring/summer seasons.

MORE KNOWLEDGE ASSESSMENTS BEING TAKEN: I am holding Knowledge Assessment exams for more Wildlife Carers throughout May.

OUR APRIL £100 'WCB GRANT FOR WCB HOLDERS' WAS AWARDED: 3 WCB Holders applied for April's WCB Grant (all very worthy). The WCB Holder community itself votes for who gets the grant each month. Val Saunders, founder of Hoggieworts Hedgehog Helpers, was awarded April's grant, to fund a red light therapy gun, to help with wounds, for her Hedgehog Rescue.

UK Wildlife Transporters work/progress… [Making sure that injured/poorly/orphaned wildlife ALWAYS get to emergency care.]

NEW WILDLIFE RESCUE ON OUR MAP: We added a new Wildlife Rescue to our UKWT Map - Greatfield Hedgehog Rescue - and some of our Drivers have already joined their transport support team.

NEW DRIVERS: At the end of March and throughout April, we welcomed 19 new Drivers, Elissa, Hannah, Imogen, Emma, Vincent, Gail, Charlotte, Victoria, Liv, Laura, Claire, Shane, Johan, Ali, Dawn, Donna, Gerard, Ashley & Rebecca onboard.

WILDLIFE TRANSPORT: On 4th April, new Driver, Hannah, transported an injured pigeon to Tiggywinkles.

SETTING UP A WILDLIFE CARE STRUCTURE: On Tuesday 8th April I had coffee with a lovely, very wildlife friendly vet on Anglesey.  We chatted for 2 hours about how best UKWT can set up a support structure on the island to make sure that poorly/injured wildlife always receive emergency care.  The result of this meeting is that I am growing a Drivers Team for Anglesey and I have been coordinating with the local hedgehog rescue - Anglesey Hedgehog Rescue - as well as rescues and vet practices in Liverpool, to set up a set of procedures to always get each species to someone who can help them.

WILDLIFE TRANSPORT: On 13th April, one of our Drivers, John, transported a poorly fox cub from a Vet Practice to Oak & Furrows.

WILDLIFE TRANSPORT: On 20th April, one of our Drivers, Hazel, transported a poorly Wood Pigeon to Cuan Wildlife Rescue.

WILDLIFE TRANSPORT: On 24th April, one of our Drivers, Tracie, transported a hedgehog with a strimmer injury from a Vet Practice in Middleton to Garforth Hedgehogs Rescue.

WILDLIFE TRANSPORT: On 25th April, one of our Drivers, Helen, transported a hedgehog with an injured front leg from a member of the public in LL71 to Anglesey Hedgehog Rescue and then - having received pain relief - onwards to their Vets for immediate euthanasia.

AN 'ALMOST' WILDLIFE TRANSPORT: UKWT was asked to help a little duckling that had been found wandering on a main road by itself. Very sadly, the little one passed away just before pick up but I'm pleased that in a very remote area, we were able to piece together a plan of action to give the duckling a second chance, should the little one have been well enough to benefit from it. It shows that what UKWT is setting up will have a profound impact & get many wild lives to emergency care, especially as we continue to grow. Find out the full info HERE.

GROWING OUR DRIVER DATABASE: We are still VERY focused on Driver Recruitment: growing our Driver Database is absolutely paramount.  We have been running a campaign to get posters put up around the UK.  So far we have them up in the areas on the map below (and you can see our recent Drivers Map below too)...

AND MORE…

[There’s been LOTS more going on behind the scenes, to enable our ‘big vision’ of a UK wide structure that enables every wildlife casualty/orphan to ALWAYS get to emergency care.  There’s been over 10hours of zoom meetings this month alone, dozens of phone calls, scores of emails and messages sent/received & updates to our websites, maps and databases. This is all run by me, Alana,]