Rescued from floods: The lucky to be alive badgers weighing less than four spoons of sugar each

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:14 PM on 20th February 2011

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These super sweet baby badgers weigh less than four spoons of sugar each - and are lucky to be alive after being saved from British floods last week by their quick-thinking mother.
The 2oz cubs are just over a week old and are the smallest ever seen by Secret World Widlife Rescue in Highbridge, Somerset, and signal the approaching Spring.
And because the animals aren't normally seen until they first venture out of their sett at three months, they give a rare glimpse of what early life is like for the animals.

Week old: Tiny badgers in the hands of Pauline Kidner. They weigh less than four spoons of sugar each - and will grow to an average of seven kilos

They were found abandoned in a barrel when floods battered Wales a week ago.
Staff say their mother detected the oncoming danger - as animals often sense disasters before they strike - and moved them to higher ground to stop them from drowning.
A local found them desperately calling out while stashed inside and, with their mother nowhere to be seen, they alerted Secret World who took them in.
Because of their light weight and the need to measure them carefully the two females and one male were named Lavender, Saffron and Nutmeg after spices used for cooking.
As the badger cubs' umbilical cords had dropped off and their belly buttons had formed, Secret World charity founder, Pauline Kidner, 60, knew the babies must have been at least three days old when they reached her animal rescue centre last Sunday.
'They're the first of the year and its a nice message for everyone that Spring is just around the corner,' said Pauline.

Tiny: Three lucky to be alive baby badgers being weighed on some scales at Secret World Wildlife Rescue in Somerset

Rescue: Tiny badgers were find inside a barrel - and it is thought their mother had moved them up onto higher ground to stop them drowning

'They were very tiny - the smallest cubs we've ever had,'
'I was actually shocked to see they were badger cubs - I thought at first they must have been rabbits, which are smaller.
'The original call was from a couple in Wales who had their own piece of land.
'Some of the setts in the area were flooded and we believe the mother probably moved the cubs into the barrel for their protection.
'They were distressed so the couple moved them closer to a nearby badger sett - hoping that the mother would return. But nothing happened.
'The cubs were becoming really cold and at such a small size they can't retain their body heat alone, so they called us knowing we had the facilities to rear them.'
The baby badgers will be kept in an incubator and fed milk by members of staff for the first five weeks.
They will then be moved to a cubby hole in Pauline's kitchen where they will be provided with a heat lamp, a warm bed of fleeces and even a webcam so anyone in the world can follow their development on line.
Eventually they will out grow their cubby hole and roam in the kitchen until they are ready to be weaned from their milk.
After this the youthful trio will move to a nearby enclosure with other badger cubs to from a new family. All the badgers will be transferred to a grassy field where all human contact will be restricted -to prepare them for life in the wild.
While there they will learn survival skills such as digging and foraging.

Rare: The animals aren't normally seen until they first venture out of their sett at three months

The cubs can now look forward to a healthy upbringing before they are released back into the wild.
'They're just starting to move their ears - it's interesting to see the development as the days go by,' said Pauline.
'It will probably be another week before they can use their back legs to scratch.
'Badgers are one of the slowest maturing animal we have so it's five weeks before their eyes and ears open.
'They wouldn't normally come up above the ground until they're 12 weeks old.
'What we're seeing is obviously something that people wouldn't normally see.'
When fully grown the badgers can expect to weigh an average of seven kilograms.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1358819/Baby-badgers-rescued-floods-weighing-4-spoons-sugar-each.html#ixzz1EWmhkJTH