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.

So far (not) so good

Well, no doubt you have all had a tricky time of it during the past six weeks or so due to the extreme weather. No different here, we've had it bad and we're hoping its all behind us. Getting into work was the first hazard on several occasions; frozen roads, frozen padlocks, frozen gates. The list could go on indefinitely.

All of the otters have come through it without any major problems; they were given large quantities of extra bedding and up to a 50% increase in their food intake each day resulting in happy otters but a large dent in the food budget. We think Biggy and Smalley need a diet soon as they have been stealing some food from Libby, who, by the way is coming along very nicely indeed and will even come out when called for by a couple of the keepers.

Tor continues to be the happiest of creatures and it can be very uplifting when, having had a bit of a rubbishy day, you go into to feed him and the gang and he greets you like a long lost playmate; bringing toys and twigs to you to play 'tug of war' and 'fetch'. He is however, completely unaware of the effect he has on keepers when he leaps up to them to get their attention to play. (We hope he might learn to deal with the yells/screams etc one day). We aren't really that scared of him, the real problem is that he has to be the clumsiest cub ever and you never quite know where he's going to end up, or even whether he'll be the right way up! He puts me in mind of young puppies skidding and sliding around, tongues out and madly enthusiastic about everything. Especially food.

Lottie, Pluto, Kernow and Coady are all growing well and still in with their parents.

Some of you may have seen Jill (a British Otter) on your visits here; she had a very bad infection in February last year and recovered well after a very long convalescent period. She was a reclusive otter though and so we moved her away from public view in the late summer. Two weeks later we moved Tino in with her and the result is that she gave birth to one cub in late November. All three are doing fine and we hope to see the cub soon, although we are leaving them to their own devices at the moment.

Dasher, our tame Muntjac Deer had a very serious accident on the ice and broke one of this hind legs. Unfortunately the break was too serious to repair and his leg has been amputated. He is in the early stages of recovery and we are keeping our fingers crossed that he will pull through. He is now back from the vets (Castle Vets, Launceston - who have been great, thank you). At the moment he is in a straw covered stall so we can keep an eye on him for the next few days.

We are pleased that the Wallabies weren't too upset by the prolonged cold weather, we have even seen signs that at least two of them have joeys although we haven't actually seen the babies themselves. Its a very odd sight seeing wallabies in the snow, apparently quite content.

Lots and lots of trees have come down and we've plenty of chainsawing to do together with miscelleaneous renewalls and repairs. No rest for the wicked, eh?

End of open season update.

We've closed again after a very busy half term. Usually we allow visitors to hand feed the Fallow Deer but we had to withdraw food from sale in the last week of October because they had decided it was time for their rut. Fallow are normally quite shy but can be a bit of a handful at this time of year. Anyway, the bucks managed to sort the pecking order out without too much of a kerfuffle (one broken antler is all) and now the herd is back to being one big happy family, and hopefully some of the does are with fawn.

Lottie (Harriet and Tam's cub) is doing very well and might be developing a bit of "attitude". She is very pushy (like her mum) and has taken to stealing her dad's food without fear of any retribution (because mum is on hand). She tries the same thing on with the keepers too and usually gets away with it (same reason). The three of them get on well (unless food is involved) and, apart from digging a huge hole and managing to collapse a 9 foot section of concreted water way, are well behaved.

Cinnamon and Leap continue to do well, although I do sometimes question their hunting skills. I have seen both of these otters hunt successfully, but the other day, after a large meal, they were rolling around in the water together when a drake landed in their pen. They gave chase, caught it quickly, and then let it go whilst they played with each other. The drake seized his chance and tried to make off, but as soon as he legged it they chased and caught him again, but, as before as soon as he was captured the two otters lost interest and started to play with each other. This happened once more before the duck worked out how how to escape from the two playful predators (i.e do it quietly and slowly) and flew off, apparently unscathed.

Biggy, Smalley, Tor and Libby are still all living together. Libby is exceptionally shy and needs very careful handling. It might be that Libby is the first agoraphobic otter that we have ever encountered; we are trying various strategies to overcome this and we are having some but not complete success. Tor is still stupidly cute but scarily strong. the other night (yes, in the dark) I was pottering around in their pen when he jumped onto my lap and started opening and closing his mouth very gently ("play with me") I took my cue and found his "octy" (a toy octopus he's had since he lived at home with us) and gave him a bit of a roll around with it and once he was satisfied that we were still close friends he let me get on with what I was doing. He is very strong, he isn't at all aggressive but I do worry that he might make a mistake that involves my fingers and his teeth......

Dasher our tame Muntjac continues to be the major criminal at the Otter Park; holding up members of staff for monkey nuts, squeezing through the barn door to burgle various food bins, and worst of all stalking staff until he gets his grapes!!

We are fighting the weather (has it been raining?) whilst we get on with winter maintenance and a brand new pen for some exciting new arrivals in the near future.

Overall things look very good considering the appalling weather; we've only lost a dozen or so large trees (time to sharpen the chainsaws) and a small landslip here and there. Lets hope it dries up soon.

Autumn arrives

The weeks have flown by again so time for an update. Tor is doing really well; we had initially tried to get him accepted by our other hand reared otters as we had not been able to find him a play mate elsewhere in the country and he needed to have an otter to socialise with. One of the keepers would take Tor into the pen and supervise the introductions; Biggy and Smalley are so accepting and inquisitive and tried to play with him almost straight away. Cinnamon and Leap just ignored him and kept their distance. After several days of Tor being taken into the pen with a keeper to supervise the introductions Leap decided he was not acceptable and attacked him just a warning but enough for us to know it was not going to work out.

Plan B then was to separate Biggy and Smalley from Cinnamon and Leap as this would have to be done in the near future and house Tor with Biggy and Smalley. Tor moved into the pen first and Biggy and Smalley came a little quicker than anticipated! John put the box into the pen for them to explore and get used to before we caught them up but they were straight in so they were moved there and then!!

They have all settled well and do not appear to miss each other which is good as they have all been together since such a young age. Cinnamon and Leap still share a box at night and by the second morning Tor, Biggy and Smalley were all sharing the same box at night too. Tor has grown in confidence over the weeks and now he comes out for the feeds and the three otters played really well together so mission accomplished!

On 27^th August however we had another abandoned British Otter brought into us, Libby was very dehydrated, stressed, had an abscess on his hind leg and a badly damaged toe on his front left foot which meant he walked with a bad limp. On a good note his lab results came back clear which meant once he had been treated for the injuries and was feeding well he could mix with Biggy’s group. Libby was only about seven weeks old so still needed milk and was very aggressive towards the keepers so we wanted him to integrate with Biggy’s group as soon as possible. He is living in the pen with them now but is very reluctant to come out when the public are around but will sleep with the other otters. We hope that his confidence will continue to grow as time passes.

Harriet’s cub is nine weeks old now and has been spotted outside this week and even seen learning to swim with Harriet which is fantastic. Tamarisk is still kept firmly in his place but we hope as the weeks pass now he will be allowed to join in!

Carmen, Coady and Kernow are still thriving and have adapted well to not having Tino around, he went off site to take part in a breeding programme with one of our females, Jill in August.

William, Hilda and Pluto are a joy to watch when they are outside playing together. Pluto definitely takes after his Mother and is very vocal and pushy when it comes to food!

Our two young Bucks are getting more confident as the days pass and we are watching to see which one becomes the more dominant male. Little Dasher can still be seen around the centre and will stop to be made a fuss of and eat from your hand and has been spotted in the gift shop on several occasions last week!!

The weather has been delightful for September and our visitors are enjoying the warm weather. The leaves are starting to turn orange and brown, a sure sign that the open season is drawing to an end and that autumn is arriving.

Gold CHEFS Award for Mandy and Lin, cub for Harriet.

On Monday 27th July at about 12.45pm Harriet gave birth to a single cub. She took us by surprise, giving no warning at all; we actually thought she and Tamarisk weren't getting on too well but that just shows how wrong we were! We don't interefere with British Otter cubs unless we have to so we don't know the sex of the new baby. It is four weeks old tomorrow and doing well. It has begun to change colour from silver to brown, starting at the head and gradually working backwards along the body. If all goes well its' eyes will open a week tomorrow and it will start exploring shortly afterwards.

On a subject very close to my heart (and to be honest, stomach) our tea room has been awarded a Gold CHEFS Award from Cornwall Council. This is in recognition of high standards of cleanliness, training, and use of healthy, local produce. We are one of the first tea rooms to receive the award (only two gold awards have been awarded so far in Cornwall since the new unitary authority took over). Mandy and Lin have worked extremely hard over the past few years to update and improve the tea room and we are very proud of them.