RSPCA East Winch Wildlife Centre Prepares For Busy Seal Pup Season

All signs point to a busy Christmas for The RSPCA’s East Winch Wildlife Centre with the mixture of bad weather and the start of the pupping season.

The Centre, which this year celebrated 21 years of seal rescues, currently has 35 seals, including most recently, two from Ireland, two from the North East and one from Jersey.

Centre manager, Alison Charles said “We take in seals from all over the country because of the specialist facilities we have developed caring for seals over the years.

“It is the grey seal pupping season but the huge storms hitting the South Coast recently have led to large numbers of orphaned pups needing care as they are too young to survive on their own. Our job is to nurse sick, injured and weak animals back to health and prepare them for a

life in the wild as soon as they are able to fend for themselves.”

Each year, East Winch cares for approximately 150 seal pups. It costs £20 per week and it takes approximately four months to care for and rehabilitate each pup.

In order to ensure this vital work can continue, businesses locally are being given the opportunity to sponsor a seal and give it a name for a minimum donation of £10.

Some local shops have already taken the opportunity to support the initiative including ‘Knickerbox’. Staff have sponsored a grey seal pup that came into the centre from Jersey where she was found orphaned by the British Divers and Marine Life Rescue and named her after the shop. Knickerbox was transferred to the Guernsey Society for the Protection of Animals and then flown to Southampton. She first went to the RSPCA West Hatch Wildlife Centre in Somerset before she finally came to East Winch on Friday 13 November for specialist treatment.

Knickerbox weighs just 9.4kgs and still has her white baby coat.

Three other pups came to East Winch at the same time. ‘Animal’ came from Boscastle in Cornwall and has respiratory problems; ‘Jane Norman’ came all the way from the Scilly Isles and ‘Iceland’ came from St Ives and has a deep infected wound on his chin.

Anyone interested in sponsoring a seal can contact the centre on 0300 123 0709, email eastwinch@rspca.org.uk or write to RSPCA East Winch Wildlife Centre, East Winch, King's Lynn, Norfolk PE32 1NR.

Seeing Pink Swans

A genuine picture from the East Winch Wildlife Centre's Annual Report to local branches. The swan was from Brundall, Norfolk. The contaminant was never identified, but was incredibly difficult to wash off. Fortunately the treatment was successful, but the swan was in care for much longer than usual before it could be released back into the wild.

The Wildlife Centre's Open day this year will be Sunday 5 July, from 10 am to 4 pm. We visited the Centre a few years ago as a "works outing" for RSPCA Cambridge branch volunteers and it is very well worth seeing. They always need old towels as absorbent disposable bedding for animals, so if you are coming, it would be very helpful if you could collect up your unwanted old towels, flannels and blankets and bring them to donate. This saves the petrol which would be used if towels were donated elsewhere and had to be specially transported to the centre.

East Winch Wildlife Hospital seal release

The RSPCA East Winch Wildlife Hospital is our regional facility for treating injured wildlife. It's paid for and run by the national RSPCA.

To view the video properly, scroll it sideways so that it centres on the page, then hit replay.

Small Hedgehogs

The wildlife hospital at East Winch is having another large influx of young hedgehogs below the critical weight for safe hibernation. Hedgehogs need to be at least 500 grams (just over a pound) and preferably 600 (a pound and a quarter) to get through hibernation and late autumn litters often fail to make it before the weather gets too cold for them to feed successfully.

Young hedgehogs are one of the few wild animals who can be given effective help by non-experts: provided they are capable of eating solid food, it is feasible to give them a chance of survival by providing them with room-temperature warmth and a supply of cat or dog food (non-fish-based) and water. Milk is best avoided because it can cause diarrhoea.

Any hedgehog seen moving around during daylight hours is almost certainly in trouble, as they are quite strictly nocturnal.