Dormice are back!

Today I received two common dormice, or hazel dormice as they are often known, as part of a national zoo breeding programme for them. They were collected this morning form the LZS, London Zoo, and arrived here this afternoon.

The breeding programme is co-ordinated at Paignton Zoo down in the South-West. The pair we have are ones which were taken in from the wild for being to small to survive hibernation. The plan is to allow them to produce one litter, they plus the parents will then be re-released back into the wild after the Summer, and next year we will be allocated another pair in similar circumstances. All this means that no one dormouse is our of the wild for too long.

This is one of very few breeding programmes which we are still new to as opposed to a leading contributor and so is very exciting for us. Once we get established it is hoped we will be provided with non-breeding, non-release candidates for a permanent home which we can put on to full display for visitors.

Leverets

Yesterday two young hares, or leverets as they are known, were brought into the Centre. They are extremely difficult to hand-rear but keeper Izzy has taken on the challenge.

She is currently keeping them at home and feeding them warm milk. Hopefully they will survive long enough to rehabilitate and possibly release back to the wild.

They were found abandoned, one with an oily substance in its coat. Hares usually scatter their young around a field as opposed to keeping them all in one place like rabbits. This is to minimise risk of loss to predators. If you ever see a wild leveret on its own, it is best to leave it be... quite often the mother will be around and waiting for you to leave so that she can return.

Badgers cubs

Another busy week ahead with photography groups and schools, today Laura and I decided to take a short break out with the Badger cubs on the reserve to give them a bit of exercise and enrichment.

They had great fun in amongst the bluebells...

Doing what badgers do best, digging!...

and just generally having a fun time.

The three cubs in our display sett are still going strong and we will probably be opening up the sett to visitors again fairly soon. In the meantime the two young orphaned cubs are still coming out for badger talks and the camera in reception is still set up on Humbug's cubs.