Wire Fence Supports Piskie’s Pen and Elowen the Badger
On 30th October in Cornwall, Wire Fence supported the creation of Piskie’s Pen, a new outdoor wildlife rehabilitation enclosure, by supplying fencing at cost price.
The story of Piskie’s Pen and Elowen the Badger
A small independent rescue took in a young female badger who had been hit by a car, and with great perseverance and dedication nursed her back to health. Unfortunately no one knew where Elowen’s sett was, so given the rehabilitation time it was deemed too risky to release her back where she was found in case her clan rejected and attacked her as she was unable to be monitored.
The rescue had limited facilities, and Cornwall now has a lack of wildlife resources, so the rescue wasn’t sure what the next steps could be, but Elowen’s plight came to the attention of Cornwall-based volunteers. They have a bit of land and had been feeding a visiting badger family for many years, but sadly the family had been gradually wiped out by culling, leaving just one young female. In 2023 an older female from another clan turned up looking for food during a period of very dry weather and the two reached an uneasy truce, neither being aggressive, but over time these lonely ladies became friendly and now even preen each other.
We spoke to a couple of badger experts and made the decision to build a rehabilitation enclosure where we could give Elowen the chance of a soft release once the process of integration with our local residents has been carried out. And so Piskie’s Pen was conceived.
We needed to keep costs and build time as low as possible so came up with a somewhat unorthodox design where we repurposed and upcycled as much as we could whilst designing the most natural environment possible. We created a Facebook page to ask for donated materials and the local badger group kindly shared it. One thing that had to be new and strong however was the fencing and that’s when we discovered the wonderful company Wire Fence, who support various animal charities and projects, and they very kindly provided all the weld mesh at cost price, which made a huge difference.
The autumn weather was against us but we persevered through rain, mud and the odd freezing evening to get the enclosure ready for Elowen to move in on the 23rd November. She has settled into her new surroundings well and become very confident getting reacquainted with the outdoors, exploring every bit of the enclosure and running around the playground we built. She also decided to do a bit of “remodelling” in her artificial sett, digging herself a chamber to snuggle into, and we’re so happy to see that her instincts are all there which is exactly what we wanted to encourage.
– Willow from Piskie’s Pen.
The enclosure will be made available to any wildlife that need it once she has been released back into the wild and Piskie’s Pen welcomes rescues to contact them if they can be of help via their Facebook page.
Comment From Wire Fence
We’re so happy we could help bring Piskie’s Pen to life! It’s lovely to see Elowen exploring her new home, digging cosy little nooks, and just being her adorable self. We hope this little sanctuary will help many more wildlife friends in the future!
Orsi, Content Creator at Wire Fence
Project Images
Disclaimer
Names in this story have been changed. Although we mention Cornwall, no specific details about the enclosure have been shared. Due to ongoing crimes against badgers, the rescue prefers to keep its exact whereabouts confidential for the animals’ safety.
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