Our story
From a conservatory to six acres
Today Wildlives covers more than six acres, most of it planted as a nature reserve, with purpose-built pens and enclosures as close to the wild as we can make them. The centre was featured in Anglia TV's Animal Tales.
Photo placeholderThe hospital or the release pens at Catkins
1995
Rosie Catford sets up Wildlives in September. People who found sick or injured wildlife locally had nowhere to take it, so it starts with boxes and pet carriers in her conservatory. 163 animals come in that first year.
2003
An animal hospital opens on site.
2004
Wildlives becomes a registered charity, number 1104167. 1,395 animals are admitted that year.
Along the way
A red squirrel breeding programme begins with two donated females and a male from Pensthorpe. Their young are released on Mersea Island, which has no resident grey squirrels, and have flourished there.
2016
A little owl is ringed and released. Nine years later it is found in Brightlingsea, still wearing its ring.
2025
Thirty years on: dehydrated hoglets, five vole pups fed every hour and a half, six cygnets treated alongside their parents, and three tawny owls rescued from a playground as chicks and released three months later.