Trio of tiny orphaned leverets found on Shotley Peninsula near Ipswich being hand-reared by RSPCA centre

Three tiny orphaned leverets are being hand-reared by an RSPCA centre after they were found in Suffolk.

The leverets – baby hares – were collected from The Shotley Peninsula, near Ipswich .

The orphaned trio will be hand-reared and given round-the-clock care until they are strong enough to be released back to the wild.

Alison Charles, centre manager at RSPCA East Winch Wildlife Centre near King's Lynn, said: “These three leverets are very small and too young to be without mum.

"We will do all we can to give them a fighting chance, however caring for such young and vulnerable patients will require some very careful nursing which involves hand feeding them giving them milk feeds with a syringe every few hours.”

The RSPCA says leverets, unlike rabbits, are born mobile, fully furred and with eyes open.

They also don’t live in burrows (warrens) like rabbits and are normally left alone from birth for long periods of time, hiding in small depressions in the ground called ‘forms’.

Their mother will return to feed them though, once a day, usually around dusk or some time during the night.

RSPCA advice, once you can confirm it is a baby hare and not a rabbit, is to watch from a distance to see if its mother returns.

If she has not returned by two hours after dusk, contact the animal charity on 0300 1234 999.

To support the work of RSPCA East Winch Wildlife Centre, take a look at the centre’s Amazon Wishlist at www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/wishlist/2QW97YL6JNRPQ/

To help the RSPCA keep rescuing animals and continue their work, visit www.rspca.org.uk/covid

Read more: All the latest news from Ipswich