about us

Our wildlife Unit

The Riverside Animal Centre's wildlife unit mainly deals with up to 2000 wild bird admissions every year, ranging in size from tiny sparrows to fully grown swans.

The unit is open between 8am and 8pm every day of the year, except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day, when we close at 1pm. In addition to the wild birds and waterfowl, we have facilities for squirrels and hedgehogs and routinely care for around 300 of these every year.

In 2011, we started a programme of redeveloping all of our aviaries which will hopefully be completed by the end of 2012, funds permitting. Our success with bird care sees us hand rear and release hundreds of spring and summer babies every year, including large numbers of blackbirds, starlings, thrushes, swifts, corvids and, of course pigeons, woodpigeons and doves.

We also routinely admit and care for a number of raptors including little owls, tawny owls, kestrels and sparrowhawks, as well as bigger and rarer birds such as the occasional buzzard, red kite and peregrine falcon. Our involvement with waterfowl sees us admit up to 200 ducklings every year that are found by the public in unsuitable locations.

We also take calls from other organizations requesting our help with large waterfowl and in every case, our staff and volunteers will rescue the birds and either bring them back to our facility or transfer them to a specialist unit such as the Swan Sanctuary should this be required.

Following the expansion of our domestic animal unit during the summer of 2011, we no longer have facilities to care for foxes, badgers or deer and as such now recommend that calls regarding these species are directed as follows:

For Fox emergencies: Please call the Fox Project on 01892 824111
For Waterbird rescues: Please call The Swan Sanctuary on 01932 240790
For Badger and Deer emergencies: Please call Wildlife Aid at Leatherhead on 09061 800132
For all other wildlife requiring collection: Please call the RSPCA on
0300 1234 999

For general enquiries regarding wildlife welfare, behaviour and conservation, please call The London Wildlife Trust on 020 7261 0447.