Badger dug into Wiltshire high-security ammunition compound

Wiltshire Wildlife Hospital said it "was actually quite an easy catch" after going through several levels of security

Wildlife officers were called in by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) after a badger dug its way into an Army base.

Wiltshire Wildlife Hospital said it had an "anxious call from the Army" after the badger "penetrated" secure fencing and got trapped inside a "high security ammunition compound" in Wiltshire.

The MoD confirmed it had called the charity to "humanely capture and remove" the trapped animal.

Marilyn Korkis, from the charity, said: "You won't deter a determined badger."

Ms Korkis said badgers were strong and incredible diggers.

She added the adult badger had "found a weak place" in the fencing and dug its way into the compound on 9 May.

"Badgers can end up in all sorts of places but this was exceptional," she said.

"He couldn't find his way out and in his memory lapse he managed to dig several areas penetrating and testing the rest of the secure fencing."

'Creep on tiptoe'

The exact location of the base in Wiltshire has been withheld for security reasons.

But Ms Korkis said they had to go through several levels of security to get into the compound, where they found the perpetrator "curled up against a wall".

"We managed to creep up on him on tiptoe and box him in before he realized something was happening," she said.

After spending the rest of the day at the wildlife centre near Salisbury, the animal was released in the early hours of the next morning "within a few hundred yards of the secure compound".

"He waddled down the track but then - unfortunately - he turned right towards the compound," Ms Korkis said.

"The Army hasn't called us back, so I'm hoping he went home."

A spokesman for the MoD, said: "We can confirm Wiltshire Wildlife Hospital were contacted by the army to humanely capture and remove a badger trapped inside a compound at one of the army's bases."