Owl Update

Richard has done a great job in rearing Tutoke, the barn owl chick. She is now looking beautiful and will make her flying debut this weekend at the owl displays. You will have to be patient while she builds up her confidence in front of a large crowd, but on her practice session today she was amazing.

In other owl news, the young female little owl that was brought in as a rescue and has been recovering in our display aviary, has now recovered and been re-released. This has allowed us to introduce Robin, our friendly little owl, into the display aviary. He has been a brilliant photographic owl, but not being an imprint will enjoy his life in the new aviary a lot more. I am hoping to acquire a young female to pair up with him later in the year... you never know, we may breed our first ever little owls in 2012.

Look out for Robin this weekend.

Wildcat Update

We have had a lot of bad luck with our wildcats so far this year, but have used this to offer our kittens from last year a nicer enclosure on view to the public.

Una and Dougal are still in the first enclosure, Kendra has been joined by her sister Iona in the middle pen and last years kittens Isla and...., Richy Junior (yes I know, don't ask!) have been put into the third wildcat enclosure.

Don't they just look so much better in the snow?... You can't tell me the above looks like a tabby! Anyway, more news to come on our wildcats for all you members on our annual Summer's Members Evening, Saturday the 9th of July. Look forward to seeing you all there.

Pine Martens

This afternoon we introduced two of our pine martens together in preparation for the breeding season. After they were seen mating last year, it was decided to let Clyde and Bonnie have another go in the hope they can go one step further and produce a litter of kitts next year.

Normally introducing pine martens is an aggressive affair, and a nervous one for me... but I have never had a problem with these two individuals. They have always seemed to get on well together with no tension at all. Hopefully they will mate again this year, and we may well be looking forward to a litter next year. It would be the first time we have bred pine martens if they do.

I am contemplating introducing Hamish and Buttons too. It would seem silly not to, as they are another potential breeding pair, but Hamish does show a lot of aggression towards Buttons through the wire. This is more normal behaviour, and maybe it is better in terms of trying to breed, but still it makes the whole process more worrying. It was too late in the day to try today, but depending on how they are tomorrow I may give it a go in the morning to give them all day to settle down, while we are there to intervene if needs be.

Pine martens are extremely difficult to breed because of their solitary and aggressive behaviour towards each other, and are seldom bred in captivity. But hopefully we can follow in the success we have had with all our other mammals and produce young kitts in the near future.