Otter Cub Update

Half term is half way through, and the stars of the week have been our two young otter cubs! Despite the somewhat dismal weather, they have both been out and about frequently and made an appearance at most of our otter keeper talks... and all our otter main feeds.

They are both doing really well, and growing in confidence daily. Both already hand feeding by the keeper, and showing their own individual personalities and traits. They have all been showing off their playful sides too... when we had the short snow flurry last Saturday, they were rolling around and playing with a snowball. And as with his cubs in the past... shortly after most of their feeds, Dad, Elwood, has been seen playing with them in the water, tumbling in and out and cartwheeling in the water.

We are still open for the rest of the week if you wish to come and see them, and then of course still open for the weekends after this week. Hope to see some of you here.

Photo of the Month: January 2017

"Ermine Stoat" by Jonathon Hicks

It is time to share our first photo of the month for 2017. We choose our favourites from the ones we see shared over the internet, or sent in to us via email. The main places we look are flickr and instagram, so if you post your pics in one of these places, there is a good chance one of us will see it... but if you have a photograph you are particularly pleased with... why not email it in to us!

We have decided to share photographs that have been uploaded within the month in question, but will always show a preference to those taken that month too... it is nice to keep it seasonal... especially since the 12 chosen images make up our coffee shop gallery for the following year. The overall winner, chosen from the 12 by a professional photographer, then wins a photographic day here at the Centre. 

So on to January 2017! Lots of seasonal pics on view, otters on ice, animals in the snow but we have picked this lovely shot of Susie the stoat, having turned ermine for the winter, taken by Jonathon Hicks. A nice closeup, which shows the full white coat and black tip to the tail in the background. 

As always, click on the link in the photographers name to see more of their work. Below are some other pictures that caught our eye this past month. 

"Otter on Ice" by Zena Saunders

A black and white otter on ice by Zena.

"Otter on Ice" by Gary K Mann

Gary has some great otter on ice pictures on his flickr stream, but we particularly liked this one... just how we feel on some of the colder mornings.

"What is this white stuff?" by Natasha Jefferies

You can see we didn't have much snow, but that we did have caused some great reactions form the animals.

"Eagle Owl" by Daniel Hannington

And an older picture, but a great one. Ethel flying straight towards the camera during our owl display. Great eye contact!