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.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
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!
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Youtube links
For video of Ellie and Dasher please follow these links.
Ellie getting used to water
Ellies growing confidence
Deer ecstasy
Monday, February 7, 2011
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 31st 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.
Monday, January 31, 2011
A very fortunate otter.
Early on the morning of
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.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
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 23rd 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 3rd 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 7th January to correct this problem with her teeth.
Make sure to keep an eye on the page for your January Otter update.
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