Pine Marten; Drogo

I thought I would update you on our new pine martens, Daenerys and Drogo...

Well, Dany is still off display and very, VERY shy. But she is absolutely beautiful! Later this year we will move her on display, and I will try my best to get her more confident for you to see. If she turns out half as friendly as our others, we will be on to a real winner.

Drogo though is turning in to a little star. Being moved in to our main pine marten enclosure, opposite the wildcats, he has quickly settled in. Normally out and about in the afternoon, and certainly around feed time, and often during the rest of the day you will see him with his head resting on the entrance to his nest box... surveying the to's and fro's of the Centre.

Now that the evenings are beginning to get a little lighter, I have started to spend a bit more time with I'm and see if we can get him a bit friendlier. I am starting by just trying to get him used to people being in there with him, and used to a camera looking at him and making a noise.

So far so good... he has his off days of course, but we are making progress and that is the important thing. In fact I think he is going to turn out to be a real poser!

Polecat Release Videos

Do you remember our polecat kitts from last year? They were successfully released back in to the wild at the end of last year, and I mentioned then that I may be able to share with you some video footage of them around their release pens recorded on night vision camera. Well I am now in a position where I can do that, so take a look at the couple of videos below.

One is off a couple of them leaving one of their soft release enclosures, and the other shows one returning to one to take advantage of the extra food put out while they settle in to their new wild life.

Enjoy...

February's Photo of the Month

"Red squirrel and Muntjac" by Ashley Buttle

Lot's of good feedback, and a lot of you coming up to me at the Centre saying you think the photo a month could be a good idea. Thanks for the support...

So, it is now March and therefore time to share my photo of the month for February!

Another one from flickr. It was very hard for me to pick one this month, some great photos of Buster our otter cub playing in the mud, the first photos of our adders emerging this year, and a beautiful portrait of one of our red squirrels on flickr that I particularly liked, but I went back to the 1st of February when this photo above was taken by Ashley Buttle.

What a beautiful photograph! So often our muntjac deer are overlooked in this enclosure due to our squirrels buzzing around, and rarely do I ever see the two interact with each other. But this photo captures a rare moment of the two species nose to nose while the red squirrel was eating a seed. Not only does this show a lovely moment to have witnessed, but Ashley has captured it brilliantly with great composition and timing.

Well done Ashley! Your photo will be in our gallery next year in our coffee shop. To see more of Ashley's photos, follow the link in his name below the photograph to see his photo stream on flickr.