A BADGER that "miraculously" survived an 100-foot plunge from the cliff-face at Old Harry Rocks was rescued by RSPCA officials at the weekend.

The female - which has since been renamed Harriet - escaped injury after the fall, despite landing on a remote shingle beach just about the waterline.

It was spotted from the sea by a paddle boarder who raised the alarm.

An RSPCA inspector hitched a lift in a boat and took the stricken mammal aboard.

The badger was badly dehydrated and thin, suggesting it may have been stranded for several days. It was taken to a vet who was reluctant to sedate her as it was too weak. However, a visual assessment confirmed the animal had suffered no lasting injury.

Sue Brooks, the RSPCA officer who rescued the badger, said: "I have done this job for 13 years and I've had to rescue badgers in gardens and down ditches before, but I've never come across one that fallen off a sheer cliff.

"We also sometimes get calls to deer that have gone over cliffs but they are very good swimmers so they can usually get themselves out of trouble.

"She is incredibly lucky to have survived."

The nocturnal creatures are notoriously short-sighted, and officers believe the badger may not have seen the danger as it hunted for food.

Sue said: "We got a call from the National Trust staff at Knoll Beach at Studland. They had a report from a member of the public, so it was all sketchy third-hand information at first.

"We thought that if it had fallen off the cliffs it would not have survived but the guys at a watersports company on the beach were very willing to take me over so we went to have a look. It was a stunning day and there were members of the public out paddle boarding and a few on the land.

"We shouted to them 'is there a badger there?' and they said yes and it's alive so we dashed back to get some equipment to rescue it.

"She was just curled up in a tight ball on a patch of seaweed.

"It's absolutely amazing. You would expect horrific injuries, possibly internal bleeding, but there was no indication of that at all, so it's quite remarkable.

"I managed to get her in a basket quite easily, it was quite dehydrated and drank a bowl of water on the way to the vet.

"Her right front leg was sore but she was using all her legs and there was no obvious fractures.

"It's a mystery how long she had been there. She was very thin but may have been struggling to find food before she fell and gone further afield than she normally would looking for food.

"We have no way of knowing why she fell off the cliff, but badgers are quite short-sighted."

Marilyn Korkis works at the Wiltshire Wildlife Hospital, where the creature is now recovering. She said: "The badger was brought it on Sunday and she was very quiet as they had given her pain relief.

"It's miraculous it survived a fall like that. Badgers are quite robust animals but it is very lucky to still be alive after that kind of fall onto hard ground at the bottom.

"I have never heard of anything like that.

"She is in a kennel and is eating but it's too early to say if she will make a full recovery, we're just taking each day as it comes."