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Wildlife Rehabilitation Unit
History
The Wildlife Rehabilitation Unit was formed way back in 1983 by Malcolm Ingham whilst he was a Ranger at Wirral Country Park. In the early days Malcolm ran the Unit in his own time helped by his wife Ann, a veterinary nurse.
In time the work of the Unit became well known and as a result created quite a lot of media attention which in turn resulted in more creatures to care for and of course greater expenditure. Eventually the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral officially recognised the Unit and offered additional funding.
Malcolm is now the local authority's Wildlife Officer and managing the Unit is part of that role. There are no other employed staff at the Unit and therefore the amount of wildlife admitted has to be very carefully controlled to ensure that the rehabilitation process serves its purpose in returning a creature back in to the wild successfully.
The Work of the Unit
The Unit is not a wildlife hospital or sanctuary but a place where wildlife, that for whatever reason has found itself in captivity, can be successfully rehabilitated back in to the wild. It can take many weeks or even months before a creature can be said to be truly rehabilitated and living in the wild once more without the supplementary feeding and back-up. Rehabilitation takes a lot of time and effort and if done correctly is very rewarding. get it right and the creature should live a full and active life in the wild for many more years. Get it wrong and it could be dead within a matter of days!
Over the years the Wildlife Unit has been very actively and successfully involved in the reintroduction of the Barn Owl back into Wirral and with the hand rearing and rehabilitation of Badgers together with many more species of wildlife.
The Unit has been involved in many television programmes - the two most recent being "Walker's Wildside" with Anna Walker and "Rolf's Amazing World of Animals" with, of course, Rolf Harris.
Malcolm works very closely with the police and in particularly with the Merseyside Police Wildlife Crime Officer on wildlife crime related issues. In May 2002 Malcolm was presented with the 'Merseyside Police Certificate of Recognition ward' for his work against wildlife crime.
What to do if you find a sick or injured animal
Unfortunately the Unit cannot mend broken limbs or stitch up bleeding wounds so the first contact regarding any possible sick or injured animal should always be the RSPCA on 0870 5555999.
The Units main role regarding sick and injured wildlife is to offer positive commonsense advice and to channel the animal to a facility where it can receive professional veterinary treatment.
The Unit does not, under normal circumstances, take in young animals and birds. To hand rear any young creature is fraught with problems and is extremely time consuming. If the animal survives it also has to go through the long process of rehabilitation.
The vast majority of young wildlife encountered by members of the public is not lost, injured or abandoned and should never be interfered with unless it is obviously injured and in distress.
Please remember that the parents are never far away. Look but don't touch!
If in doubt contact the Unit through the Wirral Country Park Centre, Thurstaston - Tel: 0151 648 4371/3884.
Education
Malcolm gives many talks on the work of the Unit to members of the public, various conservation groups and occasionally to the police and members of the veterinary profession.