Wild rabbit rescued from car engine after Camber Sands to Plumstead trip

Rae Gellel, a member of The Greenwich Wildlife Network Facebook group, says she received an unusual report on Monday of a rabbit wandering across a busy road in Plumstead.

The Greenwich Wildlife Network is a volunteer-run charity set up to help find a safe place for injured, unwell, or orphaned wildlife in the boroughs of Greenwich and Bexley.

Since wild rabbits are not commonly known in Plumstead, Rae and her teammates assumed that it must be an escaped pet, and that the rescue would be quick and straightforward.

READ MORE: Shrek the Musical set to grace the stage in Dartford as part of major UK tour

But this was soon proven to be wrong.

Rae said: “When our volunteer arrived, she spotted the wild-coloured rabbit nibbling some flowers at the roadside.

“Before she could approach however, the rabbit shot under a car and promptly vanished.

“It had climbed up into the car's innards.

“What then ensued was several hours of attempts to remove the bunny from the car by five volunteers.”

(image: The Greenwich Wildlife Network)

The car owners soon told the charity that they had recently visited Camber Sands and had spotted a rabbit near the car.

Rae claims that the rabbit must have climbed inside the car to have drawn to the warmth of the engine - and had hitched a ride all the way back to London with them.

Rae explained: “We have heard of this happening with cats, but never rabbits, and it's a miracle she was not badly burned by the car's engine or injured by the fan.

“In spite of having cinema tickets booked, the car's owner and his young son sacrificed their day out so that we could continue our rescue attempts.

“They even bought some greens to help lure the rabbit out.

“They could not have been more helpful or obliging and we are very grateful to them.

“Initially, we were squeezing under the car, attempting to search the many nooks and crannies with torches in the very cramped and uncomfortable space.

“This proved utterly hopeless (and made us realise we need to invest in an endoscopic camera).”

(image: The Greenwich Wildlife Network

Rae says that she was able to pop the bonnet once the car owners appeared and saw the rabbit squeezed in the small compartments around the engine, but there was not enough space to grab him or her.

She added: “We began calling around local garages, hoping for a loan of a car jack.

“We picked up a car jack from Merlin Motors and were then able to lift the car, and then have our very skilled volunteer Daniel remove the plate beneath the engine.

“We had committed to rescue the ducklings and were already extremely late.

“Meanwhile, there was three hours of medicating, cleaning cages and feeding of animals that hadn't even been started yet, as the team were so tied up.”

(image: The Greenwich Wildlife Network

Whilst Rae and teammates were rescuing ducks, volunteers at the Wildlife Network were still trying to remove the rabbit from the car.

After volunteer Daniel was trying to grab the rabbit from under the car and volunteer Peter was over the bonnet, Rae says there was enough of an opportunity for Peter to grab the rabbit.(image: The Greenwich Wildlife Network

Rae said: “And that's how one bunny was safely removed from a car engine and gained the name Peter rabbit.

“Peter - the rabbit is very young but is old enough to be living independently, so we will be sending a volunteer to take him home in the coming days - back to Camber Sands and the exact spot where he is suspected to have so unwisely chosen to take a nap in a car engine.”

Have you got a story for us? You can contact us here.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up with all the latest news.

Sign up to our newsletters to get updates sent straight to your inbox.