Open Country - Gloucestershire Wildlife ER

Helen Mark visits Vale Wildlife Rescue, a hospital where wild animals and birds are taken when they're found injured in Gloucestershire and the surrounding region. Perhaps surprisingly, the hospital provides good indicators of the health of local wildlife: it's possible to tell which species are flourishing by the numbers brought in. They also run wildlife rehabilitation courses for people who want to know what to do when they come across an injured animal or bird. Helen talks to the staff, and meets patients and long-term residents, including owls, buzzards, foxes, deer....and a skunk. A colony of skunks has sprung up in the nearby Forest of Dean and one was recently brought into the Rescue centre. The family who captured the skunk tell of their adventure, and why it is that skunks are now to be found living wild in the UK.