Monday, October 13, 2008

Autumn Approaches

It’s getting to that time of year now where everything is starting to wind down. Not only with the amount of visitors but our animals seem to be calming down as well.

We seem to be seeing a bit more of our wallabies at the moment and they appear to be getting increasingly relaxed around us. Once upon a time they would have been quite happily let you get within a few feet of them and then would have hopped off. Now however, they will quite happily stay put on the pathways and let you walk past without giving you so much as a second glance.

The otters are also being quite lazy at the moment amd it is much more of an effort trying to get them to come out at feeding times. William and Hilda are the only two otters that have an excuse of being lazy at the moment, as they seem to be concentrating on the future of the species as we have actually seen them mating in the past week, so fingers crossed there.

The cubs have also been a lot calmer than usual, with Biggy and Smally more interested in having cuddles than running around and getting excited, Cinnamon and Leap have also been getting a lot closer to the keepers over the past couple of weeks with Cinnmaon coming over for more and more cuddles and Leap will sit quite happily next to the keepers whilst munching on her food.
The only animals that seem to be the exception regarding laziness are the waterfowl. All of the ducks and geese have been very noisy lately indeed. In particular the Chinese Fawn Geese seem to be making the most noise and spread themselves out all over the place, so no matter where you are they still seem to be getting under your feet.

The Fallow deer seem to be adjusting to Nigels’ demise quite well and although they are understandably a bit wary of new things they are still coming down to feed out of peoples’ hands. Our next task is regarding the Fallow deer is to try and sex the three fawns, however at the moment as soon as they realise they are being watched they decide to hide themselves away.

Posted by Sonia