Brecon has been commended by visitors after different people banded together to rescue a baby hedgehog in distress.

Two pensioners were on a day trip to the town on Friday, October 28, when they came across a hedgehog in distress and two women trying to help.

The other two women moved the hedgehog from the harsh weather with the support of Helen Davies and John Lloyd from Abergavenny.

Helen and John, both aged in their 70s, said they realised the small nocturnal animals was in distress after watching an episode of Autumn Watch the night before.

Helen said: “We just thought we’d support them. They were good and the library staff were really good as well.

“We were visiting Brecon a bit of drama happened that day. We’d been watching Autumn Watch the night before and it had said that if you see a hedgehog in the day, then it’s probably in distress because they’re nocturnal creatures.”

John added: “It was saying about how they’re in decline and this one is very small, it could only have been a baby. We knew were obliged to do something.”

The couple took photos of the two women as they rescued the hedgehog from The Walk, near y Gaer, in an open and upturned umbrella. However, caught up in the moment they didn’t get their names.

Helen said that the two women seemed pleased to have found the hedgehog and called them over to observe it when they pointed out that it needed help.

She said: “It was wind and raining a lot. The older one out of the two women rang the Hedgehog Rescue Society and they weren’t very helpful, the just said to give it a hot water bottle but we couldn’t exactly do that as we were out.

“We said that we should go get some help and that the library wasn’t too far away so they scooped it up with some leaves in one of the umbrellas to carry it there.”

John added: “The staff, I think, were a bit bemused because we arrived with a hedgehog. It was very surreal to be fair.”

After some discussion between Helen, John, the two women and library staff, they agreed they should make the small hedgehog comfortable in a box and try to contact a local vet or RSPCA branch.

However the Abergavenny couple did not have their car with them and were not able to drive the small mammal somewhere to get help.

Helen said: “They [the library] rang the vet and the vet arranged to come and collect it after 6pm as that was after the veterinary surgery closed, but the library would have been closed.

“They [the two women] said they knew someone in Brecon and they said they would organise for the hedgehog to be collected from there.”

The identity of the two women, photographed right with the hedgehog in a box and the umbrella full of leaves, is still unknown - they are not thought to be directly from the town.

Both Helen and John said they were impressed by how everyone banded together to help the young hedgehog.

Helen said: “We were impressed - just seeing the town, the library and the vets come together like that to rescue the hedgehog, it was just gorgeous.

“They’re endangered animals and it just shows there are people who care about wildlife and are willing to go the extra mile which I think, especially with COP26 and the current climate crisis, is really important.”

Brecon Library staff member Lesley Fisher said they tried to help the group and the hedgehog although they faced some difficulties as they arrived 15 minutes before the building was due to shut.

Lesley, who lives in Llandrindod Wells, made the phone call for help to the veterinary practice.

“The older couple didn’t have a car and we shut at 4pm so they [the vets] collected from somebody who the two women knew after,” she said.

“The girl said she’d got a friend and that the vets could collect it from there. The vet actually rang back after but obviously they’d gone and we didn’t have their details or know where they’d gone.”

Lesley, who also commended the vets for their help, said they [the staff] had managed to find a spare box in the office and she made sure to put the small hedgehog, which could “fit in the palm of your hand”, in with paper towels to help dry it and make it comfortable..

The weather meant that the poor animal was wet and cold, and so were the leaves and bits of its environment outside.

Lesley said: “It was a very windy day and it had been raining a lot so it was damp. You could fit it in the palm of your hand - they had it in an umbrella.

“We found a box and put some towels it from the office - originally, they were saying about using bits of its natural environment, but I explained that naturally it would be somewhere snug and dry and how we needed help it dry off.

The current condition of the hedgehog is unknown - the veterinary practice involved has been contacted for a comment.

Lesley said there had been concerns for its health while it was the library and she was on the phone due its size and a tic attached to it.

She said: “It had quite a big tic on it - when I spoke to the vet, they said it probably needed to be seen because it probably needed some rehydration - because of the tic but also because it had been away from its nest.

“You don’t see them [hedgehogs] very often. It was nice to see one but it was so small. Poor little thing.”