Merry Christmas!

I have a short post for you as promised, I will give you a quick update on goings on at the park. Hilda's cub, is probably the fattest otter cub we have ever had. The cub's eyes are now open and it can move freely around the holt. Hilda is still incredibly protective and lets William know when he is too close to the holt.

We have been blessed this year by the absence of snow, although the rain has caused problems they hardly compare to those posed by the snow last year. Dasher is hungrier than usual this is probably due to the cold weather, apart from that he is fine. Then to end on a high we are convinced Tomi the Asian Short-Clawed Otter is pregnant and Carmen the British Otter looks to have gained some weight recently.

I will bring you an update early next year. Merry Christmas! This is Mini Keeper signing off for 2011!

Baby post

The park has now officially closed it's gates to the public until Easter 2012.

Since the closure of the centre, plenty has gone on some good, some not so good, but that is how things tend to go in the animal profession. Unfortunately we are unsure if Tilly ever gave birth, all we can say safely is that are certainly no cubs there now. We may never know what happened. Although looking on the brighter side Tilly doesn't seem to have suffered any trauma.

On October 21st whilst staying in Newcastle we received a phone call from one of the keepers. Coady, the female British Otter had given birth. Sadly to make a long story shorter we are positive that Coady no longer has any cubs. This could be due to the fact she had never been a mother before.

You may not believe it but four days later our female British Otter, Hilda gave birth. Unlike Tilly and Coady, Hilda had a good track record when it came to motherhood (successfully raising her first cub, Pluto who is now a fully fledged beautiful adult Otter.) Also unlike the other two, Hilda still has her cub.

It is now late November and we are now seeing Hilda's cub on a regular basis, and we also know it has been outside at least twice!

Staying with the genre of offspring, our Barn owls were seen mating and our female Tawny owl has made herself a nest. So it seems that the birds of prey have become a little muddled up with the seasons.

Thank you for reading and I will have another post for you before Christmas.

Tilly's 1st newsflash

Just a quick bulletin for you all, this morning an Otter was heard squealing from Tilly's box. In between the squeals there were short pauses; so there is a chance she may be giving birth! All the other Otters were in the box with her, with one coming out to lookout for danger every now and then. Everyone at the Park is beginning to get excited, so keep your fingers crossed!Keep an eye out for another bulletin!

September Update

We are now less than a month away from the Park's annual closure for the winter months. This season like all the others has flown by.

Now September has come and gone the weather outside has already cooled into winter, after that unbelievably hot week. With all that aside its time to update you on all the goings on at the Centre.

Congratulations to Mandy, Jacqui & Pat and everyone else that contributes to the running of the tea room as they have just received their second Gold CHEFS Award from Cornwall Council. This recognises premises that serve food, on their high standards of hygiene, and their commitment to providing good quality food with healthy options and the sourcing of some local products. They are thrilled to have received the award again as it shows all the hard work that goes into providing a high quality service to everyone that visits the Centre.

I told you that Asian Short-Clawed Otters Henry and Leah were spending every living moment together and that they had been seen mating. Well what happened next wasn't even thought of at the time, Henry continued to mate frequently with Leah, although he started to develop an interest in leah's older sister; Tilly. This didn't seem so significant until the last week of September, Tilly looked unusually big, and her teats were twice their normal size, Tilly was also far less agile. Even though this was unexpected, it can of course only be good news. (Although it is typical we are about to close our gates to the public for the year.) When she gives birth or anything worth knowing about occurs there will be an unscheduled blog post.

While we are on the subject of offspring, we have had a peahen lay a clutch of eggs recently, I brought up this matter as she demonstrated the most unusual behaviour. The keepers thought that her nest looked rather uncomfortable and damp, so while she was gone some straw was placed in the nest. We were unsure whether she would sit again before her bed was re-made, due to the fact that our peahen's track record is pretty poor when it comes to motherhood. Although, she did come back and even though her nest looked different she decided to sit back on them! This is the first time we have witnessed any behaviour like this at the Park.

Unfortunately though like all things the animal profession has it's ups and downs, on 7th of September our male European Eagle Owl, Poirot sadly passed away after exhibiting very odd behaviour for the entirety of that day. Poirot came to us from Belgium several years ago, he was 28 years old. Our current female is living on her own for now until we can find her a new mate.

If you are planning to visit us soon remember that we close after the school half-term holiday. Look out for your next update or a newsflash on Tilly.

August is the busiest month of the year at the park. Although this year it hasn't just been busy with visitors, this August we welcomed the arrival of two Scottish Polecats.

They were living off show, but they can now be seen in their enclosure down by the Marsh lake. If you are unsure what a Polecat is, a Ferret is the domesticated sub-species of a Polecat.

We are also crossing all fingers over the hope of new editions of the "Otterly" cute kind. Henry and Leah, Troy and Carmen and thirdly William and Hilda have all been seen mating. This would be great if cubs were to be born at the park. Especially if they were British Otters, as they are renowned for being hard to breed in captivity.

Jack the Kestrel has settled into life under the public eye rather well. He has now been living at the park for a month. Jack spends the day on his perch, he then returns to his aviary for the evening.

We have begun to teach Skylar the Harris Hawk the basic of flying to and from the glove. First lessons are rarely productive and Skylar was no exception. The birds tend to spend the first session just taking in their surroundings; as there are many disturbing waterfowl and peacocks.

Although the weather hasn't been a clear indicator, there have been some signs of summer at late. Such as the sighting of Kingfishers, if you aren't able to see them you will probably see them around the area.

August has also been a busy month for the Fallow deer. The fawns are now fairly confident and are not too afraid of getting close to the public. Our two young Bucks have showed the first signs of "rutting" this is a period of tome when the males battle for dominance. They have had a couple of scraps, but nothing too serious. Although I shall certainly let you know if anything ground breaking happens on this front.

Once again thank you to all you followers and don't forget to look out for your September update.

July Update

If you have read the June update then you may remember me mentioning that I was going to tell you about our latest feathery edition. Our newest bird to arrive at the park is Jack the Kestrel.

Kestrels are one of the smaller birds in the Bird of Prey family. Our little Jack weighs in at around 8 ounces, so he is lighter than your average bag of sugar! Jack has an extremely powerful beak; in the wild he would use it to break the necks of field mice, bank voles, small birds and other animals of a similar size.

Jack was hand reared by the keepers and lived at home with us for six weeks. At home he had the luxuries of central heating and the television, which he really enjoyed watching in the evening.

We received Jack from a breeder just outside Plymouth, Devon. He is now 14 weeks old, and can be seen on his block perch in our bird display area or in his newly constructed aviary.

Our bird display area is another new attraction at the centre. There are handling sessions every day at 12.30 and 2.30pm. Other birds you can see include Skylar the Harris Hawk, Tooki the Snowy Owl and Karulah the Bengal Eagle Owl. Members of the public can get up close and friendly with all of theses birds.

All six of our Bronze Turkeys have been released into the woods at the park. They can be seen roaming through the trees and foraging for food. Although they aren’t fully grown they will be a colourful edition to the woods when they do reach adulthood.

After Lola sadly passed away, Ellie has been living alone ever since. She went through a short stage of feeling sorry for herself, but with a little TLC and a lot of playtime she has returned to her old self. Ellie can now be seen worshipping the sun or playing with a keeper at the 12 and 3 o’clock feeds.

Be sure to look out for your next update on the fawns, love is in the air at some of the Otter enclosures and there is another new species at the park.

Ellie on Youtube August 2011

Follow the link below to see Ellie having a great time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq9coG5dRYw

Lola

Lola as you would have read has had a tough time before and after she came to us. After coming through her operation and beginning to gain her fitness and confidence another hurdle was thrown at her.

She came down with another infection last week which took hold very quickly and despite antibiotics and other treatment she died on Friday night. A very sad time for us all at the Centre as we had worked so hard to rehabilitate her and we had hoped the corner had been turned. She was a real fighter but sometimes nature takes over and we have to accept that some things are not meant to be.

Her pen is very empty without her.

June Update

We are now halfway through the year and at the park we are just over half way through the introductions of our new editions to the public and in some cases to their new roomies. I say this as not all of the latest editions are on display yet.

Before we move on to that there are two other stories I would like to bring to your attention. Unfortunately on the 2^nd June, Lola the British Otter sustained a series of deep wounds to her rear end. These wounds became infected and Lola had to be taken to the vet to be operated on.

The entire procedure was made more complicated as Lola had to be anaesthetized, as you can imagine a conscious Otter in an operating theatre would leave you in a bit of a pickle and the vet without any fingers! The reason this caused the procedure to become more complex is due to the simple fact that Otters are not well known for their ability to recover from anaesthetic. The actual scientific reason for this is unknown, but Otters cannot be given an injection and left to come round like other animals. They have to be brought round actively, in simple English you have to stimulate their senses manually. Through out the night my Dad was moving her main bodily muscles and giving her fluid. She had a stage at about 11pm, when she would become partially conscious for about ten seconds. At 1am she came around fully although she was unable to use one of her eyes and her hind legs. She stayed at home for a couple of days while she regained the use of all of her body and was passed on to solid food like any young cub would be. She is now fine and has been back at the park for a month.

If you can remember all the way back to the last update, (which was my fault!) Thor the Asian Short-Clawed Otter moved to Tropaquaria near Glastonbury. After failing to settle in there Thor came back. He had several cuts and a kidney infection, the other Otters attacked Thor; because of this Thor may have stopped drinking substantial amounts of water which may have caused the kidney infection. Looking on the bright side he has made a good recovery and is now very much enjoying life with former roommate Tiny.

This brings me onto the re-homing of several Otters. These Otters include Henry the Asian Short-Clawed Otter and British Otters; Pluto, Troy and Coady. Henry has been brought in from another site to keep females Tomi, Tiny and Leah occupied and hopefully he will produce the pitter, patter of tiny feet during the process.

Troy the British Otter has now reached maturity and after a spell of illness he has been moved in with Carmen who is an experienced female Otter. In the courtship of British Otters it is a matriarchal society, and Carmen wasted no time in reminding Troy of this. This made Troy a little nervous but they are now getting along fine.

Carmen’s daughter Coady has now left home and has moved in with bubbly young male Tor. After a scuffle they weren’t too keen on each other, but after realising this move was more long term than just passing through they have begun to tolerate each other’s presence.

Pluto; daughter of William and Hilda has moved to Buckfastleigh across the Cornish border on loan. After the centre there lost their female to natural causes, we hope Pluto enjoys her holiday!

Moving away from the Otters, the latest editions have arrived, no these aren’t Deer fawns or Otter cubs they are Chipmunks! They are currently off view to the public after a few nights at home with us they are now waiting for their new enclosure to be finished off.

Although we do have six newly born Fallow Deer fawns at the park! They have just started to move around with the herd, but are still very dependent on their mothers. In the next week or so they will set up a fawn minding rota so that fewer females spend time away from the herd. Also Harris hawk; Skylar is living at the park full time she has become too big to stay at home. She can be seen on a stand or in her aviary.

Watch out for your July update when you find out more about the park’s latest feathery edition.

May Update

Hello readers, the summer is almost here and May was an eventful month to say the least.

This year’s goslings (Barnacles and Chinese Fawn) have just recently entered the world and are already exploring the area around the waterfowl lake (not venturing too far from mum). One of the Chinese Fawn Geese was sitting on 15 eggs; 8 of hers and then 4 Indian Runner and 3 Mallard. It’s not only cuckoo’s that lay in other birds’ nests! She hatched four of her 8 eggs but got off her nest before the rest of the clutch were ready. We took the four remaining eggs and put them under a broody hen owned by Helen, one of the ladies who works here and two of them hatched a few days later. They’re still with their foster mother but she’s a bit bemused that the keep grazing and paddling but won’t scratch they way she knows they should!

The Wallaby joeys can now be seen more frequently popping their heads out of the pouch in the far end of the wood. We think there are eight of them and they range in size from small and skinny and about 10 inches tall to well rounded, rather plump and about 14 inches tall.

We continue to try to introduce Ellie and Lola, our two wild born cubs, to each other. As you may recall they get on well with Biggy and Smalley but not with each other. They had supervised visits to each other for 21 days but this approach didn’t work and Ellie was occasionally very aggressive towards Lola ; sometimes they would play quite nicely for several minutes and then for no apparent reason Ellie would go on the attack.

Ellie and Lola are now living as semi-detached neighbours to one another. This is to encourage them to socialise, but nothing can become out of hand as they are on opposite sides of the fence. They are fed along side this fence so they can become gradually used to each other’s presence. They have struggled to get on in the past as they have very different personalities; Ellie is constantly energetic and in your face, while Lola is seldom seen.

A new edition to the park is Skylar the Harris hawk, she is now one month old. She spent just over a month living at home with us frequently displaying her poor manners at dinner time! She is very tame and we hope to fly her in the close future. Harris Hawks are very social birds; this is why Skylar was kept in the lounge so that her brain was regularly stimulated by her surroundings. If Harris Hawks aren’t stimulated often, they will become bored and disobedient towards their trainer. This is why her trainer (my little sister; Frances); took her for walks on the glove around the garden and eventually the rest of the village. This is so she would develop confidence before she learnt to fly.

Look out for the June update that is all about our latest editions at the centre!

Late March and April update

The spring months are finally upon us and the park is now open to the general public again. In March, Lola was introduced to Biggy, Smalley and Ellie. The boys were used to newcomers and accepted her without a fuss. On the other hand, Ellie wasn’t so used to sharing friends and was rather difficult to please. Biggy and Smalley have been moved to another enclosure just in case they are the reason she is being unsociable. Ellie and Lola meet a couple of times each day and hopefully things will improve.

On 15^th April, Thor the Asian Short-Clawed Otter moved home to Tropaquaria near Minehead. This is after Thor found it hard to get along with some of the other otters (after his partner Sonny passed away); we wish him all the best with his new home.

In March we had a visit from BBC’s “Escape to the Country”, who spent the morning filming with Mandy for a 3 minute spot in a future broadcast. We haven’t been notified by the BBC about the date of broadcasting yet, but will post it here when we find out. A huge thank you to the entire “Escape to the Country” team who braved the only wet day of the week to come and film us and of course the otters.

To make a very good day even better Ellie caught her first frog on camera whilst filming with Mandy and Johnny!

Now the park is open, if you visit you may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one of at least six young Joeys and a newly born Muntjac Fawn.

The Scottish Wild Cats have temporarily been separated; this is a standard precaution in case the female has fallen pregnant while she was in season, we will keep you up to date on this story.

On the subject of baby animals the Chinese Fawn Geese and the Barnacle Geese have been squabbling over nesting sites, on the island on the Waterfowl Lake. Two nests (one duck one goose) were sited near to each other and have been transformed into one large nest containing 7 goose eggs and many duck eggs. This “supernest” is being sat on by a white duck, a brown duck AND a goose. How’s that for communal living?

This means we could be expecting some new editions on the lake soon. Strangely there are thousands of tadpoles on the Marsh Lake and none on the Waterfowl Lake.

Thank you for reading and have a happy Easter!

The Saga continues, but with a twist...

If you're a regular here you'll know by now that Biggy and Smalley have been injured by Raymond and Thor. They've been separated and Biggy and Smalley are now back living with a British otter cub, Ellie; the boys are recovering well after a course of treatment and are much more like there old selves and no permanent damage seems to have been done.

It took nearly 3 weeks to introduce Ellie to Biggy and Smalley so its quite a time consuming process.

Our newest arrival, Lola, another British cub has been with us for nearly four weeks and is well on the road to recovery so we have decided to begin introducing her to Ellie and the boys. Over the last week or so Lola has been going in with Ellie, Biggy and Smalley for two or three hours a day of closely supervised contact (thick gloves on for the keepers, just in case). Lola (aged 10 weeks) can't swim yet so all of the contact is on dry land.

As usual Biggy and Smalley have been little stars and after their initial aloofness have welcomed contact with Lola just as they've done with the numerous other otters they've looked after. They actively seek her out to play, sleep, groom and are really gentle with her.

The same cannot be said for Ellie, who at about 16 weeks old is quite a bit bigger than Lola. After a period of fear, then shyness Ellie now seems to regard Lola as a toy to be dragged, thrown and generally abused. We haven't seen this sort of behaviour in such a young otter before and we're worried that Lola may get hurt before Ellie comes round to regarding her as a companion.

We had hoped to be able to introduce Lola to the group once she could swim (which won't be too long because we're giving her plenty of encouragement and opportunities to practice and she's starting to really enjoy it - so much that she bit Sonia the other day because Sonia had to end the lesson and get on with other duties!) but that can't happen until we're sure they'll get along. So at the moment Lola will be kept inside until a) she becomes a competent swimmer and b) Ellie decides to be more sociable.

Links to more Ellie video on Youtube

Smalley and Ellie (16 weeks old) chilling out.

http://www.youtube.com/user/tamarotters#p/a/u/0/EQo2Hk7WPzM

Ellie (14 weeks old) having a day out with her boys

http://www.youtube.com/user/tamarotters#p/a/u/1/PwpXds5mdRc

Biggy and Smalley update

Another unexpected update just to let all you Biggy and Smalley lovers know that on the morning of March 20th Biggy was found in quite a state. It seems Thor isn't quite the cute cuddly Otter he seemed, Biggy was in the sleeping box terrified and had bites on the back of his head. One of the keepers removed him from the pen and the good news is Biggy and Smalley have been reunited and are both living with Ellie. We will have to keep an eye on Thor in case he does the same to Raymond.

Biggy and Smalley update

Recently Thor was introduced to Raymond, Biggy, Smalley and Ellie. But unfortunately on the 18th March, Thor started acting aggressively towards Smalley, shortly though Raymond and Biggy joined in and Smalley was bitten a few times on his left side. Smalley was absolutely terrified, we believe he was singled out like this as he is a runt.

Biggy, Raymond and Thor have been moved out to a different enclosure and Smalley is currently living with British Otter cub Ellie. On the 19th after a bit of TLC, extra attention and reassurance Smalley is in a much better state and is getting friendly with Ellie he is just in a state of shock as is Biggy who has been frequently calling for him, but Smalley won't reply to him. We will update you if anything happens on this matter.

13th March 2011

February and early March update

In February half-term we had a week when friends from Surrey came down and helped us to prepare the park for the upcoming season. This involved clearing parts of the woodland and other general maintenance . A huge thank you to all of them!

In early March we received a female Otter cub, that was found in Wadebridge which we have named Lola. She was found on the side of the road, she is recovering as she is extremely shy and was very thin and dehydrated. We hope to introduce her to Ellie in the near future.

On the subject of Ellie, she has had a very eventful few weeks. She is now living with Asian Short Clawed Otters; Biggy and Smalley and their Dad; Raymond, they all get along. However they can take advantage of her if there is food involved, but as long as a keeper is around at feeding time she is fine.

Dasher is now enjoying the sunshine that is just starting to come back to us after the cold winter months. He is now almost an internet star, he is on Youtube, but I’m not sure it’s had many views!

Our Silver Pheasants will hopefully gain a little more attention this year as the males are sure to catch a few eyes with their stunning plumage. This is because they were only little when we were last open.

Next month I will include a late March update as well as an April update so keep an eye on this page!

Youtube links

For video of Ellie and Dasher please follow these links.

Ellie getting used to water

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbzYNuvUo1o

Ellies growing confidence

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdQTumO3pmg

Deer ecstasy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRfmtBMkqSQ

Hello to all readers!!!

January was an extremely eventful month. To get the sad news out of the way first, Sonny our thirteen year old female Asian Short Clawed Otter died at the start of the month. This being an exceptional age for an Otter, she was found in the morning with her partner Raymond who was still cuddled up to her.

Raymond is now very much enjoying bachelor life with his two sons; Biggy and Smalley, who have welcomed their dad as a play mate. He like Biggy and Smalley was also hand reared by staff at the centre as a cub, after his mother’s milk dried up.

Our little Joey was staying in a temporary enclosure at the centre, after his mother had a Joey early this year and kicked him out. He is now enjoying the freedom of the entire park and has settled back in very well, after a couple of weeks of TLC.

We received a female British Otter cub from the Dorset Wildlife Rescue on the 31^st January, “Ellie” had been taken very good care of by them but needed a permanent home. She has settled in very well and is spending the day at the park so that she can exercise and learn to swim but has to go home with a Keeper at the end of the day as she still needs feeding before bedtime. Our aim is to rehabilitate her and if all goes to plan release her back out into the wild in the future.

Some of the owl aviaries have had minor changes applied, with a few new boxes here and there, being placed in more convenient places.

That being all I have to say make sure to keep an eye out for your February update.

A very fortunate otter.

Early on the morning of Saturday 29^th January 2011 we received a telephone call from Kim, a lady living on a large country estate in our area, with an unusual tale to tell.

In the middle of the previous evening she had come out of her house to collect firewood from her stack. It was very cold, dry and dark. She was close by her front door when she heard a strange repetitive squeaking and then out of the gloom came a young otter cub.

It walked right to her feet and stood there, still squeaking, looking up at her and certainly in need of some help. Where it had come from was a bit of a mystery; Kim lives at the top of a large hill around half a mile from the nearest natural water.

Kim was of course a little taken aback at this and whilst thinking about how to help the poor youngster she retreated back to her house; she may have been thinking of how to capture the cub but it seemed to read her mind and followed her through her front door and into her house and saved her the effort!

Shortly afterwards the young animal was tucked up for the night in a comfortable dog crate with water, some rainbow trout and two pigeon breasts which, although not typical otter food, seemed to go down very well.

The following morning Kim rang us and we went over to see how we could help. The cub was a fighting fit 8 or 9 week old with no obvious illness or injury, we didn’t manage to sex it (after the third bite on my arm I thought it probably wasn’t that important anyway).

We had a chat with Michael, Kim’s neighbour, who knew that otters had been seen recently playing under a nearby bridge in an isolated location and we decided to try and reunite the cub with its mum there. Mandy and I did this once before and our feeling was that because otter mothers are so devoted she was unlikely to leave the area without searching for her offspring. If we acted quickly enough she was still likely to be hanging around.

We all travelled down to the bridge in question and searched for signs of mum, but if she was there, she wasn’t going to make it easy for us to find her. The cub wasn’t helping much either, it was in a small cat box we had brought with us sleeping off its large breakfast under a very colourful old towel.

The box cannot be opened from the inside by the cub but it can be opened from the outside by mum if she pulls it towards herself which is what most otters do. She was also the only otter likely to be in the near vicinity as our British Otters are territorial animals. So with that in mind we decided to leave the cub in the box near to the riverside and return to it at dusk.

Several hours later three of us returned to the site and from a distance the box looked exactly as we had left it; there were no signs of mum.

I approached the box and as I neared it I could see the towel inside, about the size of the cub and the right shape and I thought that the cub was still in there. But as I got even closer I could see that the red door had been pulled open and that there were large muddy paw prints both on and inside the box. Just to be sure I picked up the box and it was far too light to contain the cub. The cub was clean as a whistle when we put it in wrapped in the towel so the mud had come from something else. We are very confident that mum had returned and collected her baby. A very satisfying result and well worth the efforts of all those involved.

December update

December, December, December… where to begin? Let’s start with the weather! Over the festive period the park was hit with a couple of inches of snow, meaning hot water wasn’t working at times, fish were freezing under 9 inches of ice, and wallabies were wandering over the ice and getting stuck on the island in the middle of the Waterfowl Lake.

We also celebrated a birthday, our Asian Short-Clawed Otter; Sonny, turned thirteen on the 23^rd December. Her age is starting to show, so she is now receiving an extra meal every day during the cold months and plenty of fresh straw for her bedding.

On Boxing Day a small Joey (baby Wallaby) was found and looked as though it was starting to give in to the weather, as it’s mother had an early offspring this time around and wouldn’t let the older Joey inside the pouch, so the youngster spent a week altogether under the care of the Keepers and their families.

Our first main task of the winter has been completed, and now the Scottish Wildcats enjoy a 3^rd section to their enclosure they now have an elevated feeding station, new shelters and a steeper terrain.

Our juvenile Snowy Owl; Tooki has been free flying, though he’s not always as well behaved as we’d like him to be. He has sometimes proved hard to get back and had to be retrieved from a neighbouring field in early December.

The Otters have been enjoying the new additions to their winter diet which are aimed at keeping them warm. All of them love hard boiled eggs and all but Biggy thoroughly enjoy warm baked potatoes with mince stuffing.

The lowlight for the Otters this month is that Leah, a female Asian Short-Clawed Otter has had two infections in her mouth which makes eating difficult for her. She is going to have an operation on Friday 7^th January to correct this problem with her teeth.

Make sure to keep an eye on the page for your January Otter update.