Facts & Figures

Figures for August 2023 onwards are not complete.

Traditionally April through to the end of September are the busiest times of year for us.  The weather plays an important part in when we are busy. Some years if it stays cold through to March and April the busy season starts late and and if the Autumn is mild the season may go on late. 

2023 is looking like it will be our busiest year to date, with a busier than normal winter and busy through the summer into Autumn.

The previous record was 2020 primarily due to the first Covid lockdown occurring at the height of the busy season. People were working from home and and if their cat or dog caught a wild animal or bird they were there to rescue it and save it, where as normally they would come home from work and either not know their pet had caught a wild creature or the creature was found dead. 

The above table is not completely accurate as this is based on the initial call out assessment, which can change. However, categories like Cat, Dog or predator attacks are only used where the someone has actually witnessed that animal attacking the casualty, otherwise the injuries are recorded as one of the injury categories where the cause is not known.

Human attacks, cat attacks, dog attacks, road casualties are suspected to be much higher than recorded here as they are often not witnessed but the injuries and location are consistent with those type of incidents.

A number of  cases could be classed as falling into more than one of the categories above, but the primarily reason why we are being asked to attend a rescue will be recorded only.  For example we deal with far more orphan young birds and mammals than listed above but some are reported as being a cat attack as the primary reason for rescue.   A collapsed mange fox would be recorded as collapsed not mange. Or a fox trapped in a basement or compound wound be recorded as that rather as mange even if it had mange. 

Species dealt with per year. Click on the picture to download an enlarged version. https://wildlifeambulance.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Species-by-Year-Crosstab-2021-1-scaled.jpg

Hedgehogs are by far the more common species of mammal WRAS deals with. The Herring Gull is the most common bird.

List of Towns and Total Casualties per Year. Click on the picture to download an enlarged version. https://wildlifeambulance.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Towns-by-Year-chart-scaled.jpg

Above is a table listing the key towns and villages where East Sussex WRAS has received casualties over the last few years.

Eastbourne has always been the heart of our area and we are best known in that town than anywhere else hence the highest number of calls to that area. We also find that people often refer to themselves as being in Eastbourne when in fact that are often in a suburb like Willingdon, Langney or Sovereign Harbour.

Calls about casualties in the very north of East Sussex are generally passed to Folly Wildlife Rescue, casualties in the far east of East Sussex are passed to the RSPCA Mallydams Wood Wildlife Hospital.

A small organisation has been operating in the Bexhill & Hastings area for the last few years but are now winding down meaning there is now an increase in the number of calls we are receiving for that area. Due to Rogers Wildlife Rescue cutting back due to Rogers age, a new organisation called Brighton & Hove Wildlife Advice & Rescue Service has set up. They don't have any hospital facilities and work with surrounding organisations like WRAS who help to take in as many casualties as possible, therefore seeing an increase in the number of casualties we are admitting from that area.

List of District & Borough Councils areas.

This information is based on the town and the key council area which covers that town. In locations where a town is covered by more than one council like Saltdean being covered by both Brighton & Hoce City Council and Lewes District Council, the data will lead to a slight imbalance in the results.

About 75% of all casualties we deal with we attend out on site either by one of our Collection Volunteers who act as a taxi service or by one of our rescuers in a veterinary ambulances.

The number of casualties collected from Veterinary Practices has decreased in the last few years primarily because of Avian Influenza (AI) and practices not wanting to admit wild birds, and when presented with birds they are often euthanised by some practices to avoid having to take the risk of admitting AI into their practice.

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