All systems go, well, nearly...

Well doesn't time just fly by? We're getting ready to open up once more and it doesn't seem two minutes since we closed. Lots of things still need doing (especially painting due to the recent damp weather) but we're well on our way to being ready. The plants and lawns still look a bit wan but I'm sure they'll catch up with the season soon; the extremes of winter weather has put everything back two or three weeks compared to last year. Our daffodils had come and gone by April last year but at the moment they are just coming in to flower.

We have dismantled Cinnamon and Leaps' release pen and will be bringing it back to the Centre soon. We are still visiting the site regularly and they are still living there, still together and seem to be coping very well indeed. We haven't managed to see them ourselves but we have had a couple of reports of a pair of otters being seen in the very near vicinity and it sounds very much like them; they also seem to be avoiding people which is just how it should be. One thing which has taken us by surprise is the presence of water voles in the release area. They made my heart miss more than just one beat late one evening when we took one another by surprise in the dark! I then read up on them and am confident there is a family of them out there, which is nice to know.

Dasher's coat still isn't growing back much but he seems to be doing well in himself; if you see him at the Centre please be gentle with him.

The Fallow Deer bucks are the yob element here at the moment, the are constantly trying to out do one another in the damage stakes. They have been responsible for numerous breakages and acts of wanton vandalism in the last few weeks. Fencing and pipe work is their current favourite target.

All of the otters are well, we'll be changing their diet and feeding times this week and they probably won't be happy with that initially. Tor continues to vie for the title "cutest otter ever". He is very playful and makes it very difficult for us to actually do any work when near him; he brings balls, twigs and his Octi (still suckled on several times a day) over to us to try and get our attention. He likes playing with ducks and peafowl (I'm not joking). He chases and harasses them and then they chase him and harass him back until they all get bored; one day, when he realises that they might be a tasty morsel, things might not end so happily. Tor isn't entirely useless as a hunter, we have seen him chasing and catching food (probably small eels) recently so there is hope for him yet.

We have a new British Otter, Troy, in with Tor at the moment. He's about the same age and they seem to get on well although Troy is very shy. He came from the British Wildlife Centre in Surrey and Kernow has now gone to live there in exchange.

That's all for now, fingers crossed for a bit of nice weather.

Cinnamon and Leap update.

We are still visiting Cinnamon and Leap's release site and finding signs of their presence nearby but they still have not been taking the food we leave. We look on this as a positive sign and are very pleased with how things are progressing to date. The camera has not managed to catch them yet but we did have a photograph of an inquisitive Woodpecker staring into the camera!

Back at the Centre with only six weeks until we re-open we have had a very busy half term week. Our working party group from Surrey the Browns, Reaveleys, Tresize and Creasey families all came down and we got a lot of woodland work and other maintenance jobs completed. There is a lot of truth in the saying "many hands make light work" Big thank you to all of you for the help we really do appreciate it.

Dasher is doing extremely well and finds us every day for his handful of monkey nuts and a tickle behind the ears.

The Kestrels aviary has been renovated and they seem to like the changes that have been made. The Scottish Wildcats appear to have settled in and they really do look great up in the quarry area.

Biggy, Smalley, Tor and Libby are still all in together they have made an awful mess of their enclosure so we will be moving them out soon so that we can carry out some essential maintenance. Biggy and Smalley are two years old now but they still enjoy the interaction from the Keepers and Tor also gets very inquisitive. Libby is still the shyest of the four but does come out for her food and we see her playing with the others but she disappears back inside once we get too close.

Carmens cubs Kernow and Coady are a year old this week and they are both bigger than their Mum but very relaxed around the Keepers. Harriet Tamarisk and Lottie are seen daily playing together in the water; Harriet always has an eye on Tamarisk and soon puts him in his place if he steps over the line.

William Hilda and Pluto are all getting along very well, Pluto certainly has his Mothers personalty and hisses at the Keeper at feeding time until he has four chicks then he will go away and eat them.

We will keep you updated on Cinnamon and Leap.

Cinnamon and Leap out and about

Dasher continues his recovery, the photograph shows just how radical his surgery was, but he seems to be coping well.

Cinnamon and Leap are now out of their release pen and have been venturing out and exploring their new home in the wild. Interestingly they've only explored a few metres upstream of the release pen but about 400 metres downstream. They are using a very typical otter holt, a partially eroded riverside tree root, as their current home. They haven't gone far though as this site is only 20 metres from their pen!

We've been leaving food out for them but as yet they haven't taken any. There are lots of Swan Mussel shells turning up on the river banks and a distinctly fishy smell emanates from their home under the tree, so they seem to be providing for themselves quite well.

Yesterday I did see a group of ducks on the river scatter and get up into the air in a great hurry as though they were being chased but I didn't see their pursuer. I did however see a big dog fox shortly afterwards and its quite possible that it was him rather than an otter that the ducks were reacting to.

We'll keep leaving out food for the time being just in case they have a difficult days hunting but so far, so good. We are trying to get some photographs of them in their new environment with a remote camera but so far they have eluded the lens, we'll keep trying though.

Dasher/ Cinnamon and Leap

No, its okay we haven't put the three of them in the same pen!

Dasher is still doing very well and has cottoned on the the fact that everyone has a soft spot for him and that he only has to make an appearance to be showered with nuts and grapes. His coat is regrowing but is a rather odd shade of grey at they moment, perhaps it will change colour as it grows out.

Now on to Cinnamon and Leap who were both wild born cubs brought to us in February 2008. As they grew they both had their problems, particularly Leap who had many injuries after being attacked by a dog. We have always wanted to see them both back in the wild and now we have taken a major step towards that end.

Since October 2009 we have been working to prepare them for life in the wild and to find a suitable site for their release. We have had lots of help from lots of people and as a result of all this effort Cinnamon and Leap have been moved to a beautiful location where they are currently housed in a temporary release pen.

They will stay there for the next few days and then we will open up their pen and allow them to come and go as they please for several weeks. We will continue to feed and care for them during this time but the idea is that one day they will go and will not return.

This "soft" release should enable them to practice hunting and get a little more physically fit with distant support from us.

We will be keeping the location to ourselves to give them as much privacy as possible and will update the blog with their progress.

Dasherdate/Scottish Wildcats

Dasher continues to do very well. He is up and about and getting better every day. He is no longer using the stall and is living outside, though we have provided extra shelters and he has been seen using them.

Our new arrivals for 2010 are here at last, they are a pair of Scottish Wildcats. The male and female are both grade 1 cats which means they are pure in all respects and suitable for breeding.

One of the great challenges that this species is facing is that in wild they mate with domestic cats and produce hybrids thus "diluting" their genetic purity. Some researchers believe that they may only be between 200 and 400 pure Scottish Wildcats living in the wild today, making them a very rare animal indeed and critically endangered.

We are getting to know our pair (who are also getting to know each other) and will be naming them soon. At the moment they are settling in to their new quarters in part of the old quarry.

We've seen lots of wallaby tummy movement in the last few days which means that several of our females have joeys, we will probably start to see the youngsters themselves in 8 to 10 weeks.

Lottie, Harriet and dad Tamarisk are very energetic at the moment but when the playfighting and chasing are over Lottie still likes snuggling up to her mum and suckling for a few minutes before she nods off......ahhhh, so cute.

Dasherdate

Just a quick note to say that Dasher continues to amaze us all and is doing very well.

He has been released from the stall and is free to come and go as he pleases.

His appetite is good and his wound is healing nicely although he does run out of energy quite quickly, especially when going up hill. We have put out a couple of small shelters so that he doesn't have to go very far before he finds one.

All marvellous news, the only thing is his name, Dasher, seems a little inappropriate at the moment, maybe we will think about that one later...

Dasher: an update

Dasher returned from the vets on Monday a bit dazed and groggy after having his right rear leg removed and spent the night very quietly as you might expect.

On Tuesday he managed to get himself up a couple of times and although he was drinking lots we couldn't entice him to eat very much, not even his favourites (grapes and monkey nuts) seemed to be hitting the spot. During the evening he perked up a little and that has continued into Wednesday.

His appetite is not very good but we have discovered that he still enjoys lots of contact (rubbing and scratching) and squeaks if you stop too soon so we are able to keep him under close observation without worrying him at all.

His wound is healing well and he is getting around on his own in the small area we have confined him to. We're stocking up on grapes and nuts in the hope that we'll need them soon.