Emerging from Hibernation

Yesterday the adders were seen out for the first time this year. Earlier today, they were seen out again, and so it seems the warmer weather is beginning to slowly wake them from their hibernation.

The male adders tend to emerge first, slough their skin and feed, before the females emerge a few weeks later. We have three male adders and two females on display, so if the sun is out this weekend, make sure you spare some time to spend a few minutes looking out for our adders in their enclosure.

Our other hibernating animals are beginning to stir too. Our edible dormice and bats have been awake for a few days now, and our hedgehogs are starting to feed more regularly in the evenings. This means we can add them back to our schedule of keeper talks, so from this weekend going forward we are changing to our summer schedule of talks which will be as follows:

10.30 - Red Squirrels (in the Copse)
11.00 - Foxes
11.30 - Wildcats
12.00 - Otters
12.30 - Red Deer
01.00 - Hedgehogs
01.30 - Foxes
02.00 - Wildcats
02.30 - Otters
03.00 - Badgers
03.30 - Pine Martens (back by popular demand!)
04.00 - Owl Display (in the Dell)

Welcome to Tom

Last, but by no means least, let me introduce you to our third new keeper... Tom!

Another void is being created with Leonie leaving in a few weeks to go travelling in Australia. So Tom has come to fill the space, and add a bit of testosterone to our female heavy team... lucky lad!

Tom, Tom 2, or little t as some have been calling him, studied Animal Management at Plumpton College before gaining a job in a pet shop. However this was never enough for his ambitions in working with animals, and so he joined our team of keepers at the beginning of the week, and hopes to develop his skills to work with wildlife.

As always, please do make Tom feel welcome around the Centre, and say hello to him when you next see him.

Absolute Photo App Magazine

We have had a lot of publicity over our photographic competition recently. National newspapers yesterday, and regional BBC news today! All this reminded me of a video we did a while back, and were asked not to share until the mid of February. I thought some of you may like to see it, so I have embedded it above.


This video was made for Absolute Photo. An App magazine about photography by Bright Publishing. We have done a lot with them in the past, and thought this would be a nice new venture to support one of their new App Magazines.

The questions were quite specific, hence the answers, and they wanted to stay away from the technical bits which was nice for a change. Anyway, have a look and have a little laugh. It was a good afternoon, and the guys were really nice to work with. If nothing else you get to listen to some great banjo tunes!