Like most of the country this week we have had snow, it makes the journey to work a challenge but we obviously have to get in to feed and care for the animals.
It looks beautiful but not all the animals are fond of it, the British Otters love the snow and ice and enjoy rolling around in it and swimming in the freezing water. The Asian Short Clawed otters are not as keen and seem to get back inside as soon as they have finished their food. The hand reared cubs enjoyed the snowballs we made for them but again Biggy and Smalley not as keen with Biggy wanting to be picked up off the snow for a warm cuddle!
We have had a few more surprises this week we were amazed to see a young Joey in its mothers pouch looking out onto the freezing world around him. It’s definitely in the best place in these conditions.
On Thursday the snow had disappeared so we prepared to catch up on some of the jobs that the weather had disrupted. On the routine morning inspection I came across a large carp in the waterway at the edge of the waterfowl lake. On closer inspection it had been recently killed and I think I disturbed the diner, certainly must have been quite a large animal to catch it and drag it out of the water!
We gave it to the Asian Short Clawed family and it kept them quiet and busy for the rest of the day.
Dasher the Muntjac deer is continuing to do well at home, he is weaning now and growing too.
Hilda, William and their cub, who we have decided to call Pluto, continue to do well, we have seen them all sharing a box and John spotted William and Hilda coming out of one box in the afternoon and the cub came out of the other so they seem very relaxed with each other. The same cannot be said for Hilda’s attitude to her keepers! We went in on Thursday to cement the side of their pond as it has been leaking, we timed it so that they would be resting after their breakfast. The otters usually have a look to see what you are up to and then leave us to it but we always go in pairs in case they object to our presence. We have been keeping out of William and Hilda’s pen as much as possible so that we do not disturb them or cause unnecessary stress.
William was the first one out and he just swam and walked around us not really worried by our presence. Then Hilda who had been watching from her tunnel decided we were probably getting too near to the box where the cub was tucked up. She was out swimming around, charging at us, hissing and spitting the whole time. John was cementing and Sonia and I were on watch armed with brooms to keep the otters out of the way if they do get too curious. Hilda made a charge for my broom and bit it and pulled it straight out of my hands, she is so feisty. I think she got a shock too as she retreated whilst I retrieved my broom. We quickly finished the job as we did not want to upset her any more.
Pluto is getting much bolder and will come out and wait for his food with William and Hilda; yesterday tea time it was at the gate growling at me just as his Mum does!
We hope the snow will not be around for much longer as we have so many jobs left to and less than eight weeks to complete them in.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Herons and Buzzards
Well, we’ve had an extraordinary couple of days here. Firstly, yesterday (Thursday 22 January) Mandy was feeding the otters at tea time and saw William, Hilda and their cub (now about 12 weeks old) playing together in a very gentle, caring way. William is such a good dad he even allows the cub to take food from him when Hilda won’t give hers up. As we still don’t have any decent pictures of the cub Mandy went to the barn to get the camera and see if she could capture the moment.
Now, those of you who are familiar with our site will know that we have around 3 herons which, although wild can be seen regularly, usually about tea time when they scavenge the otters left-overs.
When Mandy returned to the pen she saw that Hilda had attacked a heron that had landed nearby and was in the process of killing it.
When otters and herons normally meet there is usually a kind of stand off, they do not attack each other as they have respect for the strength and weaponry of their opponent. After a few minutes one of them will become bored and move off and the other will claim the prize which is food.
For them to fight is a very rare event indeed and we can only think that Hilda saw the heron as a threat to her cub and decided to attack and kill it. The whole thing was over very quickly and the heron was almost certainly doomed from the first seconds of the attack but when William joined in its fate was sealed.
The otters appear to be uninjured even though the heron tried to stab with its beak several times.
Now this is a bit of a gory incident but it is nature in action and possibly uniquely Mandy caught a substantial amount of it on film. We have posted it on Youtube under the title ‘Heron takes on an otter and loses’. It may not be suitable viewing for the faint hearted.
Now on to the next incident; this morning (Friday 23rd January) Denis and I were at work and as I walked by our Bengal Eagle Owls I noticed something odd, it appeared that another bird of prey was in there aviary with them!
I called Denis and together we entered the aviary and saw a juvenile Buzzard had somehow squeezed through the wire mesh, probably to steal a free meal. He found that it’s much easier to get in when no-one is looking than it is to get out when you are being attacked by two Bengal Eagle Owls!
Fortunately none of the birds looked injured and it only took a couple of minutes to get the Bengals into their shed and then catch the terrified Buzzard by gently covering it with my coat. Once caught we took it to a woodland shelter and gave it a quick once over, no injuries but a big dent in his pride was all the experience had cost him, lucky boy. We released him and after a moment or two to gather himself he flew into a tree where he spent 20 minutes preening before disappearing further into the woods. A very lucky Buzzard indeed.
Now, those of you who are familiar with our site will know that we have around 3 herons which, although wild can be seen regularly, usually about tea time when they scavenge the otters left-overs.
When Mandy returned to the pen she saw that Hilda had attacked a heron that had landed nearby and was in the process of killing it.
When otters and herons normally meet there is usually a kind of stand off, they do not attack each other as they have respect for the strength and weaponry of their opponent. After a few minutes one of them will become bored and move off and the other will claim the prize which is food.
For them to fight is a very rare event indeed and we can only think that Hilda saw the heron as a threat to her cub and decided to attack and kill it. The whole thing was over very quickly and the heron was almost certainly doomed from the first seconds of the attack but when William joined in its fate was sealed.
The otters appear to be uninjured even though the heron tried to stab with its beak several times.
Now this is a bit of a gory incident but it is nature in action and possibly uniquely Mandy caught a substantial amount of it on film. We have posted it on Youtube under the title ‘Heron takes on an otter and loses’. It may not be suitable viewing for the faint hearted.
Now on to the next incident; this morning (Friday 23rd January) Denis and I were at work and as I walked by our Bengal Eagle Owls I noticed something odd, it appeared that another bird of prey was in there aviary with them!
I called Denis and together we entered the aviary and saw a juvenile Buzzard had somehow squeezed through the wire mesh, probably to steal a free meal. He found that it’s much easier to get in when no-one is looking than it is to get out when you are being attacked by two Bengal Eagle Owls!
Fortunately none of the birds looked injured and it only took a couple of minutes to get the Bengals into their shed and then catch the terrified Buzzard by gently covering it with my coat. Once caught we took it to a woodland shelter and gave it a quick once over, no injuries but a big dent in his pride was all the experience had cost him, lucky boy. We released him and after a moment or two to gather himself he flew into a tree where he spent 20 minutes preening before disappearing further into the woods. A very lucky Buzzard indeed.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Otters on You tube
We have posted a short film of Biggy, Smalley, Leap and Cinnamon on You tube under the title "Eggstatic otters". It shows them in the first week of January 2009 just messing around really. We hope you like it..
Despite the recent freeze, associated burst pipes etc all the animals are fine. One of our hens shocked us (and maybe Mother Nature) by hatching out six chicks on 4th January; and no this is not a mollycoddled bird, this is an outdoor girl. To date they are all doing fine despite her refusal to accept our offers of heat and extra food.
We have also spotted some unusual movement in one of the wallabys' pouches which indicates that she either has a very bad tum or far more likely, she has a small joey in there.
Hildas' cub continues to do well but is very camera shy. We often see the three of them (William, Hilda and cub) playing together but as soon as I get get my camera out the cub goes in. I will keep trying though, and will post some pictures as soon as I have them.
Despite the recent freeze, associated burst pipes etc all the animals are fine. One of our hens shocked us (and maybe Mother Nature) by hatching out six chicks on 4th January; and no this is not a mollycoddled bird, this is an outdoor girl. To date they are all doing fine despite her refusal to accept our offers of heat and extra food.
We have also spotted some unusual movement in one of the wallabys' pouches which indicates that she either has a very bad tum or far more likely, she has a small joey in there.
Hildas' cub continues to do well but is very camera shy. We often see the three of them (William, Hilda and cub) playing together but as soon as I get get my camera out the cub goes in. I will keep trying though, and will post some pictures as soon as I have them.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
An unexpected arrival
Well, what a beautiful winter we are having aren’t we? Lots of freezing cold days with no chance of idling or you’ll freeze to death in a flash! Amazing how no-one wants to sit down for very long while it’s this cold isn’t it?
One of our first big jobs recently was clearing our little island of all of the tree and scrub growth that has been allowed to develop in the last few years. A half day of chain-sawing and cutting was all it took, great we thought, but we hadn’t taken into consideration just how much mess we’d make. It took four days to drag it off the island using the boat and truck and another few days to cut it up and burn it. This was not helped by the frozen pond, the ice was too thin to risk walking on it but our little flat bottomed dingy was too light (even with me in it) to break through it. The result was that we ended up using the dingy as a very large skate, great for wasting time enjoying yourself with little pushes here and there, but not so good for getting things done.
Our bridge building in the Marsh Lake is also progressing very well. About sixty feet of new walkway has now been built and that only (only???) leaves us about two hundred feet of footpath to make a start on, lets hope the weather holds eh?
All of the animals seem to be getting used to our winter routine and are very relaxed at the moment. Hansel (our Fallow buck) leads the way, approaching anyone who he thinks might give him some food or attention. If you haven’t got any of the former and don’t have time for the latter you’d better watch out because he has developed a habit of gently head butting you if you ignore him;- don’t let him catch you on the river bank!
Hilda’s cub (who we are thinking of calling Darcy but haven’t quite decided yet) is doing very well indeed. We don’t know its sex yet as Hilda is very protective and won’t let me have a look. It is very dark coloured and very big (one of Williams’ traits). Its eyes opened on the 30th November and that is consistent with a birthday of 26th October. I go in to say hello most days and although most of the time I can get nice and close without causing any stress to any of them I can’t get quite close enough to lay on hands and sex it without scaring them (and me!). We are starting to see it out during the day every now and then but more regularly at dusk when we have seen it being dragged into the pond for a three second dip and then being returned to the holt under duress.
William is still in the same pen as Hilda and the cub and seems to be getting used to things. His place in the current circumstances is confusing to both him and us however. Sometimes he is allowed in with the cub unsupervised and that seems to go well, other times he is attacked by Hilda (apparently just for breathing) and on one occasion we saw him being attacked (albeit very briefly) by the cub! Did he try to defend himself? No he didn’t, he legged it while Hilda looked on nonplussed! Very odd.
On Sunday 14th December, a bright, dry, cold day Mandy and I arrived for work as usual. As we went about our morning jobs we heard an unusual call, something between a blackbird’s alarm call and a high pitched childish scream. We heard it every few minutes but couldn’t locate or identify the source. After a bit of searching we found a dead Muntjac doe who looked as though she had died very recently. We concentrated out efforts near to her and after a couple of minutes Mandy found the source of the peculiar sound under a bush; a new born Muntjac fawn, umbilical cord still attached, very cold and very hungry. He was about 5 inches tall and one of the tiniest, cutest things I have ever seen. Straight into my jacket pocket then home and under a heat lamp. Dasher (yes, Dasher, on the insistence of our children) is now a couple of weeks old and doing well. He is playful and extremely fast when he doesn’t want to be caught. He lives with us at home and will continue to do so until the weather warms up. He lies quietly in his box until it approaches feeding time. As soon as he sees his bottle he is up; a big stretch and then he trots over to you and has his meal. After that its playtime, followed by a little exploring (he has access to most of the house but can’t do stairs yet). After an hour or so that’s it, he either takes himself back to his box or settles under the rocking chair or his favourite radiator. Before you ask, no he doesn’t mess everywhere, he’s got nice manners and waits to be stimulated before going to the toilet. Very civilised.
Happy New Year.
One of our first big jobs recently was clearing our little island of all of the tree and scrub growth that has been allowed to develop in the last few years. A half day of chain-sawing and cutting was all it took, great we thought, but we hadn’t taken into consideration just how much mess we’d make. It took four days to drag it off the island using the boat and truck and another few days to cut it up and burn it. This was not helped by the frozen pond, the ice was too thin to risk walking on it but our little flat bottomed dingy was too light (even with me in it) to break through it. The result was that we ended up using the dingy as a very large skate, great for wasting time enjoying yourself with little pushes here and there, but not so good for getting things done.
Our bridge building in the Marsh Lake is also progressing very well. About sixty feet of new walkway has now been built and that only (only???) leaves us about two hundred feet of footpath to make a start on, lets hope the weather holds eh?
All of the animals seem to be getting used to our winter routine and are very relaxed at the moment. Hansel (our Fallow buck) leads the way, approaching anyone who he thinks might give him some food or attention. If you haven’t got any of the former and don’t have time for the latter you’d better watch out because he has developed a habit of gently head butting you if you ignore him;- don’t let him catch you on the river bank!
Hilda’s cub (who we are thinking of calling Darcy but haven’t quite decided yet) is doing very well indeed. We don’t know its sex yet as Hilda is very protective and won’t let me have a look. It is very dark coloured and very big (one of Williams’ traits). Its eyes opened on the 30th November and that is consistent with a birthday of 26th October. I go in to say hello most days and although most of the time I can get nice and close without causing any stress to any of them I can’t get quite close enough to lay on hands and sex it without scaring them (and me!). We are starting to see it out during the day every now and then but more regularly at dusk when we have seen it being dragged into the pond for a three second dip and then being returned to the holt under duress.
William is still in the same pen as Hilda and the cub and seems to be getting used to things. His place in the current circumstances is confusing to both him and us however. Sometimes he is allowed in with the cub unsupervised and that seems to go well, other times he is attacked by Hilda (apparently just for breathing) and on one occasion we saw him being attacked (albeit very briefly) by the cub! Did he try to defend himself? No he didn’t, he legged it while Hilda looked on nonplussed! Very odd.
On Sunday 14th December, a bright, dry, cold day Mandy and I arrived for work as usual. As we went about our morning jobs we heard an unusual call, something between a blackbird’s alarm call and a high pitched childish scream. We heard it every few minutes but couldn’t locate or identify the source. After a bit of searching we found a dead Muntjac doe who looked as though she had died very recently. We concentrated out efforts near to her and after a couple of minutes Mandy found the source of the peculiar sound under a bush; a new born Muntjac fawn, umbilical cord still attached, very cold and very hungry. He was about 5 inches tall and one of the tiniest, cutest things I have ever seen. Straight into my jacket pocket then home and under a heat lamp. Dasher (yes, Dasher, on the insistence of our children) is now a couple of weeks old and doing well. He is playful and extremely fast when he doesn’t want to be caught. He lives with us at home and will continue to do so until the weather warms up. He lies quietly in his box until it approaches feeding time. As soon as he sees his bottle he is up; a big stretch and then he trots over to you and has his meal. After that its playtime, followed by a little exploring (he has access to most of the house but can’t do stairs yet). After an hour or so that’s it, he either takes himself back to his box or settles under the rocking chair or his favourite radiator. Before you ask, no he doesn’t mess everywhere, he’s got nice manners and waits to be stimulated before going to the toilet. Very civilised.
Happy New Year.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
A brief note on Hilda
Hilda and her cub continue to do well. We've been in with her several times now and she is now confident enough to let Mandy and I in the pen with them and approach her holt without getting into a panic or being aggressive towards us. She is eating well and looks to be in very good condition although I would expect a slight deterioration in her physical well being in the next week or two as the cub becomes more demanding on her. The cubs' coat is turning brown and it is beginning to look like a small version of its mum. It is around ten inches long (a guess, we aren't handling it at the moment) and its eyes are still closed; we expect them to open in ten to fourteen days when it reaches five weeks old. As you can see from the photo it isn't easy to gather information at this stage.
William is still in the pen with Hilda but has been using a separate holt for the past few weeks. He has been curious about her and her holt but hadn't dared to venture too close in case she attacked him. However, we've seen him coming out of her holt on several occasions in the last few days. On one instance she was outside the holt waiting to be fed and as we approached we saw him come out of her holt. We checked straight away and everything was fine but we didn't expect her to allow him access at such an early stage. I don't know of any examples of dog otters harming their cubs but it still makes us rather nervous. It may be that the recent cold spell has driven them together for warmth. If so, let's hope it warms up soon.
Posted by the otter Keeper.
William is still in the pen with Hilda but has been using a separate holt for the past few weeks. He has been curious about her and her holt but hadn't dared to venture too close in case she attacked him. However, we've seen him coming out of her holt on several occasions in the last few days. On one instance she was outside the holt waiting to be fed and as we approached we saw him come out of her holt. We checked straight away and everything was fine but we didn't expect her to allow him access at such an early stage. I don't know of any examples of dog otters harming their cubs but it still makes us rather nervous. It may be that the recent cold spell has driven them together for warmth. If so, let's hope it warms up soon.
Posted by the otter Keeper.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Closed...
Another open season finishes, each year seems to go by even more quickly than the last. The weather was good over half term bringing the visitors in which was great to see before we close for the winter months.
We hope as we are sure you do that next year will be a lot drier than the wet summer we had this year!
Well the “closed season” started off in a very exciting way for us as Hilda our three year old British Otter has given birth to one cub. She had not been out for a few days although we knew she was in her box. So on Monday morning John had a peek just to check that all was well with her and had a glimpse of a small grey and brown cub. He immediately put the lid down as we did not want to upset them.
We have increased her food and moved the food box nearer the gate so that we will disturb them as little as possible. She has caught us all by surprise and William is still living in the pen although we had noticed he had been evicted from the main box and is in the other one in the enclosure. We have deliberated whether or not to remove him but feel that it may upset Hilda more if we start catching him up and she is a very feisty character and is definitely more dominant than poor William who has obviously been told to keep well away!
We know the cub is less than two weeks old as we cleaned out the boxes on the 23rd October.
It is early days so we have to keep our fingers crossed that all continues well for Hilda and her cub, we will keep you updated as things progress.
Biggy, Smalley, Cinnamon and Leap continue to do well and we are making sure that we still go in with them each day as they enjoy the interaction with the keepers almost as much as we do!
They were being a bit of a nuisance yesterday as we were changing the water in their pen and they insist on getting involved in whatever we are trying to do so everything takes a lot longer than with any of the otters at the centre.
Hansel our young buck has been trying to take control of the does as the rutting season is in full swing, he barks at them and tries to boss them around but does not have enough experience for the older ones to take him seriously.
We are settling into the new winter routine and drawing up the list of jobs to be done so we will not be idle over the months.
We will keep you updated on the centre and in particular the cubs over the next few months.
Posted by Mandy
We hope as we are sure you do that next year will be a lot drier than the wet summer we had this year!
Well the “closed season” started off in a very exciting way for us as Hilda our three year old British Otter has given birth to one cub. She had not been out for a few days although we knew she was in her box. So on Monday morning John had a peek just to check that all was well with her and had a glimpse of a small grey and brown cub. He immediately put the lid down as we did not want to upset them.
We have increased her food and moved the food box nearer the gate so that we will disturb them as little as possible. She has caught us all by surprise and William is still living in the pen although we had noticed he had been evicted from the main box and is in the other one in the enclosure. We have deliberated whether or not to remove him but feel that it may upset Hilda more if we start catching him up and she is a very feisty character and is definitely more dominant than poor William who has obviously been told to keep well away!
We know the cub is less than two weeks old as we cleaned out the boxes on the 23rd October.
It is early days so we have to keep our fingers crossed that all continues well for Hilda and her cub, we will keep you updated as things progress.
Biggy, Smalley, Cinnamon and Leap continue to do well and we are making sure that we still go in with them each day as they enjoy the interaction with the keepers almost as much as we do!
They were being a bit of a nuisance yesterday as we were changing the water in their pen and they insist on getting involved in whatever we are trying to do so everything takes a lot longer than with any of the otters at the centre.
Hansel our young buck has been trying to take control of the does as the rutting season is in full swing, he barks at them and tries to boss them around but does not have enough experience for the older ones to take him seriously.
We are settling into the new winter routine and drawing up the list of jobs to be done so we will not be idle over the months.
We will keep you updated on the centre and in particular the cubs over the next few months.
Posted by Mandy
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
