Butterflies and humans are having a great time in this hot weather but it’s not the same for all wildlife. Water is essential for all of us. Wildlife often find their water in puddles. In this unusually hot weather we are experiencing, water evaporates and they are unable to find it.

Earthworms, that form a vital part of their diet are going into aestivation – they cannot survive in this state indefinitely and around 87% will perish.

At Harper Asprey Wildlife Rescue we are hit on many levels in the rescue:

• Just keeping wildlife hydrated and water bowls topped up is a full time job.
• Keeping our cubs and young wildlife hydrated in between the vital bottle feeds they need to help them grow is doubling our interaction with them.
• Rehydrating a wild animal with a primary injury, such as a break from a road traffic accident, would normally take a short period but now that is prolonged.
• We are seeing an increased number of wildlife casualties with dehydration coming into the centre, especially young animals who just donate know where to go for water – they are hit the hardest as they don’t have the knowledge of surviving in a drought.

A dehydrated animal cannot feed and will not usually become hydrated with water alone. 

We use rehydration fluid for much of our wildlife. This is a simple home remedy version you can use in your garden –

• 1 litre of water
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt

Boil the water to dissolve the salt and sugar in and allow to stand until cold and then pour the water into a bowl. The water will need remaking and topping up daily.

We regularly top up our water with rehydration fluid but here is a simple way we use to slow down evaporation in the outside runs.  Get a shallow and stable tray from your garden centre like this one here that is used for plants to stand in. Fill it up with gravel like this and the whole evaporation process will slow down. Wildlife can dig in the gravel to find water. Water is essential for us to survive so please spare a bowl for our wildlife.   Remember for these little cuties it’s tough out there.