Ipswich badger in DIY swimming pool rescue

The badger was not keen to learn how to use a ladder

A man had to muster his DIY skills to rescue a badger which had fallen into his almost-empty swimming pool.

A neighbour's dog alerted David Sheppard that there was something unexpected paddling around in the outdoor pool at his home near Ipswich.

Mr Sheppard put a ladder in the pool in the hope the badger would use it, "but he was having none of it," he said.

Eventually he built a makeshift ramp and, while his back was turned, the badger scampered up to freedom.

Mr Sheppard first spotted the basking badger on Friday, but thinks it probably toppled into the pool the previous night.

"There aren't any steps in or out so it must have just fallen in," he said.

When the homeowner's back was turned, the badger escaped up the homemade ramp

Storm Eunice had brought down a tree on Mr Sheppard's fences, enabling badgers from a neighbouring wood to access the garden and pool.

The homeowner contacted local wildlife rescue group WeCare (Wildlife Essex Care and Rehabilitation Enterprise), who advised him not to get into the pool with the animal, as badgers can bite.

While they arranged for volunteers to go to his house, they suggested he try a ramp.

"I put the ladder in and then I realised that probably wasn't going to work," Mr Sheppard said.

So he nailed strips of wood to a board to create a ramp for the badger.

While scaling a ladder proved a step too far for the nocturnal mammal, it appeared to manage to get itself up the ramp, out of the pool and off to the woods.

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