SIR Terry Pratchett has launched an appeal to help save injured and sick wildlife in Bristol.

The author, who began his career in the city, is backing a £4.4 million appeal to build a teaching hospital at Secret World Wildlife Rescue Centre.

Secret World founder Pauline Kidner said much of Britain's wildlife was in decline and the South West had been particularly hard hit because while being the largest rural region, it had also been the fastest developing over the past 20 years.

She said: "We will receive around 5,000 injured or orphaned animals and birds over the coming year, yet when wildlife needs people's support most, the nation is increasingly losing touch with nature." Secret World response drivers have answered hundreds of calls from people in the Bristol area in recent years.

Rescued animals include a mute swan that crash-landed onto the M32 close to Fishponds having mistaken the road for a river and a hedgehog who wandered into a car dealership in Winter- stoke Road.

Sir Terry, pictured, said the work of the centre was vital.

He said: "Orphaned by traffic, hurt by our pollution and rubbish and forced out of their natural habitats by our developments, Britain's wildlife is in serious decline so much so that even the sparrow and the much-loved hedgehog are endangered."