Hot, hot, hot

If you think it's hot for us humans, imagine what is like living outside in this heat, having to source enough food to live on every day. And enough to drink. The animals in our care don't have to worry, as these three rescued hoglets have found out....

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Drought is a killer (literally) for mammals like badgers and hedgehogs. They find it impossible to dig their claws into hard, parched ground to unearth beetles and worms.

As water becomes more difficult to find, staying hydrated becomes difficult. This is particularly dangerous for cubs and hoglets, which easily face malnutrition.

Birds find it very difficult to maintain the correct body temperature in hot weather. They don’t have sweat glands, so their body temperature easily soars. This is why you may see birds ‘panting’ in the heatwave – they are opening their beak to try and lose some heat.

Our insects are at threat too. Heatwaves exacerbate already-falling insect numbers. Food plants are scorched or wither and die, and young caterpillars are killed by the heat. Many of these insects are essential food for other creatures like birds and mammals, so without them, they too will starve.

Here are some quick tips about what you can do at home.

• Create a bird bath with a shallow tray or bowl, making sure you keep it topped up to help birds cool off and stay hydrated.

• Put a shallow bowl of water on the ground so hedgehogs, their little hoglets and other mammals can have something to drink. Please also add a few stones to provide shallower pools for insects to drink from.

• Create sheltered areas for wildlife so that they can get out of the heat. Please do not trim back hedges or any overgrown areas of your garden. These are essential places to hide for wildlife suffering from heat exposure.

• Please don't cut your grass. Short grass is more prone to the effects of the sun and lets the heat reach the soil. Longer grass, even just by a few inches, can provide shelter for insects - vital food for birds and mammals.

• Leave food out to support wildlife through this very tough period. Read our guide on what to feed hedgehogs here.

• Birds generally need less help to find food in the summer, but they can still benefit from mealworms, seeds, fatballs or suet. Always make sure food and water stations are kept clean to prevent spreading disease. More information about that here.

  
  

Please do all you can in your own garden, to save wildlife from heat exhaustion, dehydration and starvation. Thank you so much.

If you would like to support our work, please consider either with a donation (click here or email us for our bank details), or by sending us supplies (more information here). Thank you so, so much in advance. Every donation of any size makes a real difference to our work.