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.