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Local College Poster Design Competition - The Winners!
A huge part of protecting our local countryside is teaching our younger generations how to care and to respect it’s wildlife. Giving them the knowledge on how to interact with vulnerable animals helps ensure that our beautiful counties and their inhabitants will be preserved for future generations.
With countryside education a big priority here at CPRE Bucks we jumped at the opportunity to get involved in a local college competition doing just that. The competition was on the topic of local wildlife support and care. Animal Management students ages 16-18 years old were tasked with creating an educational poster to inform the residents of Bucks and Berks on how best to support two of wildlife rescue centres most common patients.
Approximately 60 students across two classes were tasked with creating a poster under two themes.
1. How to help Hedgehogs
2. How to help Fledglings.
Working in groups of 2 or 3 they designed and created an impressive array of A3 posters. The aim was to get local residents to stop and take a moment to consider some of our more vulnerable local wildlife. The outcome was very impressive! 
Once all the posters had been collected they were displayed within the college where students took it in turns to look over all 30 designs and submit their anonymous votes. We were looking for votes to consider the overall design and how informative the poster was. The winning posters are also set to be displayed in local Veterinary group waiting rooms to inform the general public on how to (or not to) approach these delicate animals.
BCA college who are located just over the border of Bucks in Hurley were the college to host the competition. The site has recently partnered with Buck’s Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital and the Pickles Hedgehog Group to be a release site for rehabilitated hedgehogs. A release site is a location that is safe natural environment for hedgehogs to be re-released after they have undergone some human care. Once they are medically stable and no longer need medication they can be put back into the wild. (This needs to be done at an appropriate time of year). Providing a safe home for them to flourish independently again. Pickles Hedgehog group is an independant hedgehog rescue centre run by one of the students at BCA college who was trained by The Marlow Hedgehog Hub. Pickles Hedgehog volunteer group has been running for around 4 years, with their Fb page gaining nearly 700 members! They offer a wealth of advice and support to local residents who find an injured or lost hedgehog who need help finding their feet.
Hedgehogs generally tend to build cognitive maps of their home area which can be over one kilometre in radius. However tend to live in an area of closer to 2.5 acres. Release sites work best when there is already a known hedgehog population within the area. Hedgehogs are often familiar with their local nesting and feeding opportunities within their home range so releasing close to where they were found is often preferably, however not always suitable. 
The second topic was on how best to deal with fledgling’s. A fledgling is a baby bird in its first coat of feathers that is capable of moving about on its own. They have often only just ventured from the nest, and still learning how to move/fly and find food. Because they often can’t hop properly yet, nestlings/fledglings drag themselves around by their wings and can look like they are injured or distressed when it may not be.
Hence making fledgling care a tricky topic. Too much human interference can be very detrimental to the young birds, removing a fledgling from the wild reduces its chances of long-term survival to a small fraction, and is a very last resort – only if it’s injured or has definitely been abandoned or orphaned should we step in. Fledglings can usually be left alone but if a fledgling is injured or has been attacked people should call the RSPCA for help. We also advise never to try to return a bird to the nest as this may disturb the other young birds. For further details please take a closer look at the winner poster below.
For more details on how best to support our spiky friends and cooky feathery babies please take a look at the deserving winning posters below:
If you wish to download these posters yourself and display in your public space near you please feel free to download using the links below. However always ask permission of the building/ business owner.
