Giving British wildlife a second chance at life

Aim

To buy and install green features for our Wildlife Education Centre, using them as working examples of how to combat climate change

Secret World Wildlife Rescue is dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and eventual release of British wildlife. Every year we care for around 4,000 sick, injured and orphaned wild animals and birds.

Based in Somerset, we are a well-respected source of expertise and a centre of excellence where all British wildlife can receive the best possible care. We believe that every animal is important, and we respond to every call for help.  We are passionate about the natural world and seek to inspire learning about the world of British wildlife, encouraging everyone to discover what they can do to protect it. 

We know British wildlife is in trouble. Around 40% of the wildlife casualties we care for find themselves in trouble because of human activities. Common reasons for admission to our centre include:

• being caught in garden netting, discarded fishing equipment, and general waste
• nests being disturbed
• road traffic accidents
• gardening accidents such as strimmer injuries
• persecution and intentional cruelty

Education is a huge part of our work, and our aim is to inspire in people a love of the natural world and encourage them to help wildlife too. We work with people and groups of all ages, from pre-school children to veterinary professionals, offering a wide range of learning sessions about wildlife, the environment, and climate change.

Our direct work with animals is more concerned with welfare than conservation. This is why our learning programme is so important. We use case studies of injured animals to teach people about the human impact on wildlife and what they can do to reduce their own impact. However, our learning programme is not limited to mammals and birds. We acknowledge that all types of wildlife are important and that without insects, worms, and spiders many of the species we treat simply could not survival in the wild. Therefore, our educational work covers everything from beetles to badgers and includes the plant species that wildlife needs to survive. By showing how it is all connected we can change behaviours and attitudes, which we believe is the most effective way to help the future of our precious wildlife. 

Outdoor learning – a key part of our work with children and young people – also offers physical and mental health benefits. A study by the Nature Connectedness Research Group has shown that people who are more connected to nature feel better and ‘function well’ and have higher levels of self-reported personal growth. Outdoor learning can deliver these benefits at the same time as educating children, making it a very attractive offering for educators. Improving health and education is particularly important in our surrounding area, which ranks well below the national average for health and education on the Co-op Community Wellbeing Index.

How you can help us

We are very fortunate to have a dedicated Education Centre at our site, which was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The building is a base for our on-site learning, which is resuming in 2022 after a 2-year pause due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

We are currently making some improvements to the space and the attached garden, to make it more interactive and provide more working examples of wildlife-friendly gardening and recycling.

As climate change is increasingly affecting wild habitats, we are hoping to install some new environmentally-friendly features. These will be great examples of some of the ways we can combat climate change which will be used in our learning sessions, as well as making our operations more sustainable and green. 

“In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught” – Baba Dioum

We hope to install solar panels on our converted barn's roof to help power the building, rainwater harvesting (we get plenty of rain in Somerset!) so we can water the garden during dry months, and a sedum roof on the extension of our building to attract bees and butterflies.

The difference your help could make

Demonstrating how these green features benefit the environment will enhance our learning sessions and have a much bigger impact than simply talking about them. They will help us show how caring for the environment is beneficial to wildlife, and how everything in nature is connected.

As well as benefitting the children who come to our centre, the new features will also help reduce our energy and water bills, saving our charity a lot of money long-term.

The sedum roof will encourage insects and pollinators to visit our garden, which will in turn help the birds and other visitors to the garden. The garden will be filled with life which will make our learning sessions much more interactive and interesting, creating opportunities for children to see bees and bugs close up rather than simply reading about them.

The following is a quote from Steven (name changed) who benefitted from our education programme:

“As a child I was fortunate enough to visit Secret World on many occasions and see the amazing work that they do for British wildlife, these visits helped to shape the love for the countryside and its wildlife that I have today.”
Steven is now working as an educator for a wildlife charity, having learned the importance of educating people about the natural world through their own experience with our charity.

Our target includes the cost of purchasing and installing solar panels, rainwater harvesting, and a sedum roof.

This project successfully funded on 12th April 2022