Reserve Releases

We have had a very good year this year for breeding, and many animals are in line to be released in to the wild at some stage in their future.

Earlier this week we released another batch of animals out on to our nature reserve.

Our harvest mice have been on top form this summer, and on Tuesday we released our third group out on to our reserve. As far as I am aware, no members of the public have see them out there, but during an early morning stroll I have on occasion seen one or two climbing through the grasses looking out for an early snack.

The other animal we release on to the reserve are water voles. As I explained last year, we use these special pens to "soft release" them in to their new habitat. Over the end of last year, and early this year they have been brilliant... and bred once again earlier this year, and early summer.

On Tuesday we opened up the water vole release pens to allow a further ten individuals to explore the reserve. We are hoping that this will add fresh genes to the population, while encouraging them to spread up the stream.

We ask visitors to let us know when they see a water vole down on the reserve, and it is not often a day goes by with out a sighting. So be patient, spend a bit of time down there, and you may get to see a real wild water vole in action!

Kendra's Kittens

At the risk of turning this in to a Wildcat blog, here is a short clip of Kendra's kittens out having a play.

Kendra had three kittens earlier this year, and over the past couple of days they have really started to get a little bolder and have an explore... with mum close by of course!

Kendra is a great mum, and I will try to get some better photographs of her kittens for you over the coming weeks.


For those that would like to see some more kitten photographs, have a look at my sister blog by clicking on the picture of me a the top right of this page. Here I will post a few of Iona's kittens from time to time to keep this blog a bit more varied.

Now I promise not to post another photo or video of a wildcat on this blog for at least the rest of the week!

Iona's Kittens

Another quick update on Iona's kittens which we separated from Macavity and Iona a few days a go. After an initial spell of uncertainty, realising they still had each other, they have settled extremely quickly. They are even coming out for our keeper talks already and I think they are enjoying exploring their larger enclosure.

They have been sexed as two males and a female, and so now we have the job of naming them. Not an easy task with six keepers to keep happy.

Keep an eye open for them in our main pen... they look quite small in there at the moment while they are still young, but it won't be long till they have grown and look like proper wildcats.