A GROUP of baby hedgehogs that were rescued from a holiday park have been released back into the wild.

Five spiky babies were found wandering around in the middle of the day next to the reception area of Burnham Holiday Park on June 11 and were brought to Secret World Rescue Centre by kind worker Gareth Davies.

When they arrived at the centre, each hedgehog weighed under 150 grams, meaning they were extremely malnourished and underweight.

Staff worked out that they were around three weeks old – far too young to be away from their mother.

Secret World animal carer Trudi Howell said: “When the hedgehogs were first brought to the centre, I took them home and hand-reared them.

“They were syringe fed and had to be in an incubator.

“Gradually they grew stronger and moved through the different stages of feeding with puppy milk and cat biscuits.

“Now they are around 11 weeks old and are mature enough to be released.”

The five babies – three girls and two boys – were taken back to the holiday park at dusk on July 23, and set free near some hedgerow and long grass, away from the reception area.

“The hedgehogs will be supported by Gareth every evening for the next 10 days after their release,” continued Trudi.

“We have made them a straw nest and they will be fed and watered until they have found their own way round. They all weighed 500 grams now and so they have grown substantially.

“Some hedgehogs were brought to us a few years ago from the holiday park so these could very well be their offspring.”

Gareth Davies, park ranger, was lucky to find the hedgehogs when he did they should never be out during the day.

“I rescue a lot of animals at the park,” he said.

“Now they’ve been released we don’t want to tell people where they are because people on a holiday park will go looking for them, so there’s a bit of discretion.