Saving the prickly and cute…

…And all creatures great and small.

Having recently experienced the flooding of my city I am keen to help some of the less visible victims as well. Having spotted a dead echidna by a tree next to a usually busy road in a flood affected inner city suburb, and realizing that he was most probably washed there in the flood waters from Toowoomba, I am keen to start an online charity to assist wildlife.

I am proposing an Ark Appeal for Wildlife. Would gardenvisit be happy to sponsor a charity and gardenvisit readers happy to contribute to it?

6 thoughts on “Saving the prickly and cute…

  1. Tom Turner

    I love hedgehogs and would be happy to help with a design ‘something’ for flood landscapes. But I wonder if it might be better to ask the design community to contribute ideas instead of money. The ideas could be used to produce something along the lines of a Flood Landscapes Design Manual, advising home-owners, schools, farmers, municipalities etc how to prepare for future floods. I think it possible that ‘generating ideas’ would be as, or more, effective than ‘generating money’. We could set about drafting an invitation to contributors on this blog and then publicise a Flood Landscapes Design Co-Operation/Competition along the lines o the Tiananmen Competition. The ‘prizes’ would be Flickr comments on the entries and inclusions in the Flood Landscapes Design Manual. The pleading eyes of the hedgehog should encourage us all.

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  2. Christine

    The Flood Landscape Design Co-operation/Competition sounds good. Perhaps we should divide the manual into categories of inundation (a little like insurance company categories…ie. minor flooding from a rainevent, storm, backed up or broken stormwater system etc through to major events.)

    I can’t still help thinking that the little guy needs a bit of a health insurance scheme and I don’t think he has the cash to pay his way. But perhaps if we can make things a little safer for him in the wet he may not need health care.

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  3. Tom Turner

    We once found a baby hedgehog running on a clifftop at mid-day. It had lost its mum and appeared very frightened, as well as being infested with fleas. We rescued it and it lived in our garden for perhaps a year. I doubt if humans can judge the happiness of hedgehogs but have to day that it did not seem happy when removed from its habitat. We remain life members of the BHPS – the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. I think the creation of hedgehog habitats is the best thing to do.

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  4. Christine

    Yes I heard hedgehogs often have fleas (which must be very difficult for them combined with spikes). Echidnas seem to have their very own fleas and ticks too. [ http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/pests/paralysis-tick/ticks-and-native-fauna.htm#echidnas ]

    Perhaps hedgehogs are happy wandering from their usual habitat but not too happy about finding themselves suddenly relocated? But it seems as if the baby hedgehog liked being in your garden and was probably waiting to grow up a bit before becoming more adventurous.

    The BHPS with the possibility to register as a carer and apply for funding seems like a great model for an echidna/wildlife disaster relief charity.

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  5. Tom Turner

    The soulful eyes of the echidna are certainly a call to action. But my thoughts would turn to Marx (‘from each according to his abilities’) and to think that collecting ideas would be something I could do whereas collecting funds and managing committees, distributions etc is not something I would do unless I could not avoid doing it.

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  6. Christine

    As soulful as the echnida’s eyes are I can appreciate Marx’s sentiments and your reluctance become involved in charitable finance and management. (After all, even Bill Gates recognized giving away his money for charitable causes took a full time commitment.)

    Perhaps there may be an imaginative way to achieve the same outcome but avoid the organizational structural problems by harassing existing organizations in a creative way?
    [ http://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/Pages/bill-melinda-gates-letter.aspx ]

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