Badger cub found injured on roadside recovering after being rescued by caring Yorkshire woman

A badger cub which was found lying injured on the side of a road near York is making a great recovery after being cared for by a rescue centre.
Emma Farley wrapped up the cub in her jacket and waited with her at the roadsideEmma Farley wrapped up the cub in her jacket and waited with her at the roadside
Emma Farley wrapped up the cub in her jacket and waited with her at the roadside

Emma Farley spotted the cub while on a cycle ride a few miles west of York on June 6, and contacted Yorkshire Swan and Wildlife Rescue Hospital as she knew they would be able to care for her.

Ms Farley, who runs a hedgehog rescue centre called Little Silver Hedgehog, has experience of rescuing stricken animals and waited by the roadside with the club for 90 minutes until someone from the hospital came to pick her up.

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She said: "It was about lunchtime by the time I got to the spot where I found her so she would have been there for a few hours. She was on the tarmac but she wasn't far away from where it went down into the hedge so I think she would have been in a line and maybe been clipped by a car.

The badger cub was found on the side of a road near YorkThe badger cub was found on the side of a road near York
The badger cub was found on the side of a road near York

"A lot of cars would have driven past and probably just assumed she was dead, but because I do a bit of animal rescuing I always look. I saw her head move and her eyes were looking at me.

"I was on my road bike so had no way of transporting her so tried to think of who could come and collect her. I called Yorkshire Swan Rescue Centre because I know they do rescue other animals as well. I had to wait about 90 minutes until someone arrived.

"She wasn't moving much but this can often be the case because they will be in shock or dehydrated. I wrapped her up in my bike coat and soon she started to warm up and become a bit more feisty. I was swaddling her in the coat and she was trying to get away because she was scared but I knew if she did she would run across the road and probably collapse.

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"She then tired herself out and went to sleep, so while I was waiting for someone to arrive she went from barely moving to being feisty and then back to barely moving again."

Ms Farley said the cub is doing much better and they are now looking at ways to get her back into the wild.

"She is doing really, really well," she added. "She was on a drip for 24 hours so she was really dehydrated. If she goes back to her sett, that will be quite soon, so I will be exploring the area this weekend to see what I can find."

A post on the Yorkshire Swan and Wildlife Rescue Hospital Facebook page earlier this week said: "We suspect she had been clipped by a vehicle, and had been at the roadside for some time, given the dehydrated state she was found.

"Following emergency fluids through a drip and time in one of our intensive care pens, the cub is today eating and feeding herself, as well as exploring her current surroundings."

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