During Bank Holiday weekends, while many of us enjoy time off with family and friends, the dedicated staff and volunteers at East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service remain hard at work, in a single recent bank holiday weekend, they assisted over 120 new casualty incidents in addition to approximately 115 already in their care.
On Good Friday, WRAS received 28 new casualty calls, including a collapsed badger reported on the disused railway line cutting at Malling, Lewes. Kind members of the public helped guide our rescuer, Brian Downing, to the badger, speeding up the rescue process. Unfortunately, despite being rushed back to WRAS’s Casualty Centre, the badger passed away overnight.
Holy Saturday saw 24 incidents, which included injured pigeons in Haywards Heath, a collapsed badger at Ashburnham, a crow in Eastbourne with a damaged leg, and several nesting birds that were out of their nests too early to survive.
Easter Sunday proved busy with 50 incidents, including 12 ducklings trapped in a drain off the cycle path just west of Wilmington. Three rescuers were on-site to assist with their rescue. All the ducklings were safely caught and brought in for care, as their mother was nowhere to be found. Simultaneously, other rescuers attended to 10 ducklings discovered wandering in a Pevensey garden, also without a nest or mother, and in need of assistance.
On Easter Monday, WRAS took over 20 casualty calls with rescuers responded to a collapsed badger at Reedens Meadows in Newick, a couple of hedgehogs found out during the daytime in Eastbourne and many more casualties.
WRAS’s dedicated rescue coordinators have been responding to incoming calls. Not every call requires a rescue; many can be addressed with advice. WRAS received several inquiries from outside its designated area, including reports of a deer in Frant, a pigeon in East Grinstead, a badger in Surrey, and a duckling in Hickstead. All were provided with guidance or referred to more local assistance. When necessary, WRAS dispatched ambulances to rescue injured animals, and some individuals generously brought in casualties.
East Sussex WRAS wishes to express gratitude to Brighton & Hove Wildlife Advice & Rescue Service for their support in handling several calls in the Brighton area, many of which were transferred into our care. Notably, they rescued a fox cub entangled in netting in Brighton and, after a veterinary check, brought the cub to our Casualty Centre. We also received a report from Sussex Police regarding a pigeon trapped between a window and a wooden board at a property on Sillwood Road, Brighton.
The charity has also received a few unusual calls including reports of a road casualty Ostrich or Rhea on Ashdown Forest, a call about a calf which was calling and a sheep stuck in mud at Hamsey, who were all pointed in the direction of suitable help.
Over the four-day Easter weekend, WRAS ambulances covered more than 1,000 miles. WRAS has rescued or admitted over 1,000 casualties so far in 2025.
May, June, and July are the charity’s busiest months, with up to 68 casualties handled each day. In June last year WRAS dealt with 1100 casualties. To better manage the workload, WRAS has hired additional temporary staff this summer. Sadly the charity continues to face challenges to its space and resources each year as the huge demand on the charity’s services increases.
WRAS urges the community to support the charity and its essential work in helping sick, injured, orphaned, and trapped wildlife and preventing their suffering. For further information, advice, and details on how to make a donation, please visit the charity’s website at www.wildlifeambulance.org.
