Stories about a fox cub chased by hounds and a baby red squirrel whose hazelnuts were stolen by a grey have won a wildlife-themed short story competition launched by the RSPCA.

An independent panel of judges which including Wildlife TV presenter Chris Packham, national journalists and children book illustrators chose the winners of the Wild About Britain competition.

The winners were selected from hundreds of entries from children sharing their imaginary tales of secret squirrels, bashful badgers and friendly foxes.
 

The winners of the two categories are as follows:

11 and under: The gold prize goes to Charlotte Pearce, aged 11, for her story about squirrels, called A New Neighbour. Well done Charlotte!

12-16 years: The gold prize goes to Ayasha Kawakita aged 14 for her story, The Chase. Well done Ayasha!

And of course, one story was voted for you by you. We’re delighted to announce that the winner of the People’s Choice award is Louis Baxter Wedderburn, aged 11, for his story Hare’s Birthday.

Read the winning stories and find out the winners of the silver and bronze awards in the two age categories.

The lucky winners have had their stories illustrated by well-known children’s book illustrators David Roberts (illustrator of Frankie Stein’s Robot), Paul Howard’s (illustrator of the Bugville series) and Rebecca Cobb (illustrator of ‘Lunchtime’) as pictured here.

They also received Family Golden Tickets to the Roald Dahl Museum, a copy of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox and an illustration of their story by children’s book illustrators David Roberts, Paul Howard or Rebecca Cobb.
 

Well done to everyone who took part and thank you for sharing your wonderful stories about British wildlife!