Discovering a wild animal in distress can feel overwhelming. Rescues are incredibly busy and can't always pick up the phone immediately or take every animal about which they are contacted. Our site is designed to help. Below you will find a step by step guide to what to do and links to sources of further help if needed.
It’s essential that a wild animal in need of assistance is helped but it’s also very important that wild animals are not plucked from the wild unnecessarily. Finding the right balance can sometimes be difficult and that’s where we hope to help.
As a general rule…
Always seek help from a rescue if an animal has
Rescue help is probably not needed for
We have an extensive library of articles on our website which aim to cover the common reasons why a member of the public might think an animal needs help. You can browse them all at helpwildlife.co.uk/advice.
If you have assessed that the animal needs help, getting them contained is a really important step. All the while they are ‘loose’, there is a high risk of them being attacked by a predator or wandering off and missing out on help. They’re also being exposed to the weather and getting wet or too hot or cold can make the difference between life and death for a sick animal.
That said, exceptions apply. Please do not attempt to contain:-
In the situations above, please proceed directly to Step 4 – contacting a rescue.
Although the risk of catching anything from a wild animal is extremely small, whenever you handle a wild animal it’s sensible to take hygiene precautions. You may wish to pick them up with gloves or a towel to avoid touching them directly. After handling, always wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water and/or use an anti-bacterial hand gel.
Before you capture any animal, have something ready to contain it in. In most cases, a large cardboard box lined with a towel is ideal. For larger or very lively animals a carry box designed for cats might be better. If using a cardboard box make sure the lid is secured to prevent escape and that there are sufficient air holes.
If you don’t have a box or carrier, you can be creative. For a baby, small, or immobile animal, you can also use a bucket or laundry basket covered with a towel. Or ask a neighbour or local shop to lend you a box.
Likewise, if you’re uncomfortable handling the animal or you need an extra pair of hands, please seek help from neighbours or local friends and family. Rescues are always under a great deal of pressure and they’re unlikely to be able to spare a volunteer to pick up an animal which doesn’t need any specialist handling.
If the bird is mobile or can still fly you can try to tempt it into a shed, garage or other roofed area to make capture easier. A trail of food may work for confident species such as pigeons. You can also try setting a makeshift ‘trap’ to catch it with as described below. Once caught, follow the section on non-flighted birds below for tips on how to handle the bird.
An adult bird which cannot fly is likely to still try to run away from you. Try to ‘herd’ them into a corner or against a wall to reduce the directions in which they can run. Then you and a helper can approach from different sides. Holding a large towel each also helps you to block off as much of their escape route as possible. If they’re near a road or other hazard, put yourself between them and the hazard so they don’t run towards it to escape you. Similarly, if you’re trying to catch waterfowl, put yourself between them and the water so they can’t escape on to it.
If you want to avoid touching the bird, you can try placing a cat carrier or cardboard box on its side up against a fence or other barrier and gently herding the bird into it.
Most small birds can be handled without risk of injury to the handler but many people who contact us are scared to handle a bird for fear of hurting them. It’s helpful for both handler and bird to place a towel over the bird in order to contain the wings, reduce the friction between hands and feathers, keep the bird calm, and put a barrier between your hands and their beak and feet. Hold the wings against the bird’s body and try to avoid the bird flapping as this will stress it and can cause feather loss.
Always get the bird into a box as quickly as possible and keep the beak away from your face. Avoid contact with the feet of birds of prey too as they have very sharp talons.
If you need to rescue a baby and there are protective parents around, an umbrella is a great way to keep a gentle barrier between you and upset parent birds.
Before attempting to capture a bat, please note the following important information
In light of the above information, we recommend that you contact a licensed bat carer before touching the bat where possible. We list many in our directory of rescues or you can also contact the Bat Conservation Trust directly.
If the bat is in immediate danger and you need to move it, pick it up using light gloves or a tea towel. In truth they don’t often bite and the smaller species would struggle to break your skin if they did anyway. But this helps to protect you from any rabies risk and is gentler for the bat.
As a hedgehog’s usual defense is to keep still and curl up, they shouldn’t prove too difficult to capture. It is best to pick them up using thick gloves or a towel to protect you from their spines. Make sure the box you put them in is tall and/or has a lid as hedgehogs are surprisingly good climbers.
Don’t be fooled by the small stature of rodents. Even a tiny mouse can give you a surprisingly painful bite and a squirrel can cause significant injury. Whilst the ability of rats and mice to carry and spread disease is grossly exaggerated, it is sensible to avoid being bitten by any wild animal, so handle with care using gloves or a thick towel.
Cover the animal with a towel and try to “shuffle” it gently into a box turned on its side. That way you don’t need to actually pick the animal up. If this isn’t possible or the casualty has injuries which doing this may make worse, use the towel to ensure the animal cannot see your hands before picking it up. ‘Scooping’ with both hands rather than grabbing with one will cause less stress but cup your hands around the animal as you do so they don’t jump forward out of your hands and risk falling and hurting themselves.
Although getting an animal to a wildlife rescue promptly (ideally within a few hours) is essential, what you do or don’t do in the hopefully small amount of time the animal is with you while you seek help, can make a life or death difference to the animal. Here are some important steps to follow:-
If you have found a sick or injured wild animal, we strongly recommend seeking help from one of the specialist wildlife rescues in our directory rather than trying to care for it yourself, or calling general/domestic animal-focused organisations such as vets or the RSPCA. We explain why in more detail here.
If you don’t find any suitable rescues in your initial search, or those you find can’t help, you can move on to searching the second section of our directory which shows you smaller rescues.
You can also check our list of National Organisations to see if there is one representing the species you need help with. In some cases they have a network of carers or a helpline to offer more assistance.
Now, in an ideal world, you’ll telephone a wildlife rescue, get through to them immediately, and drop the animal off within the hour for assessment and care. But wildlife rescues are struggling – there aren’t enough of them, funding is scarce, and it’s usually the same over-worked volunteer answering the phone and trying to take care of all the animals.
Here are our tips for getting the help you need
It isn’t always easy to find a rescue placement and we know that can get stressful. But please remember:-
Most rescuers are volunteers who dedicate their lives to animals alongside jobs and families. Please be understanding if they can’t help on this occasion.
Wildlife rescues rely entirely on donations from the public. Please give whatever you can spare to help cover the costs of your animal’s care and treatment.
If you’ve had no luck finding help, you can contact one of the helplines we list, or get in touch with our email helpdesk. Our volunteers will provide assistance, including checking our reserves list for any micro rescues, independent rehabbers or wildlife-friendly vets in your area.
If you have a small casualty that you have contained in a box or pet carrier, they can be transported to rescue in that. Ensure there is a towel in the box with them so they have something to grip, and, if you haven’t already done so, remove any food or water so this doesn’t spill on the journey.
If you have access to a car then the box can then be placed on the seat and secured with the seat belt to prevent the box from moving too much and causing the animal distress. Try to keep the car quiet by keeping conversation to a minimum and the stereo off – remember that to the casualty, human voices are a source of fear.
But I don’t drive?!
Your first instinct may be to expect the rescue to pick the animal up from you. TV might have given the impression that animal rescues have a fleet of shiny white vans and uniformed employees on hand to pick animals up, but the reality for most wildlife rescues is that they rely on unpaid volunteers who are fully occupied cleaning, feeding and medicating their many patients. If they were to leave the rescue to collect casualties, the welfare of the animals in their care would be compromised.
If you find a casualty and can’t drive it to the rescue yourself, please try your very best to get it there using one of the solutions below:-
The information in the steps above should be sufficient in the vast majority of cases. Taking the time to read through and follow it takes pressure off already over-worked volunteers.
But if, after reading and following the advice above, you are experiencing any difficulties with any of the steps, please get in touch with either one of the helplines we list, or our email helpdesk.
If you are outside of the UK, the following sites may be helpful in finding a rescue in other countries
Irish Wildlife Matters
National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association (USA)
Animal Help Now (USA)
The International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council