Adders have emerged

The warmer weather has brought some of our hibernators out from their winter slumber. Some of our dormice have begun to stir, our hedgehogs have been up and about for a few nights, our bats have begun to flutter and feed during the day and perhaps most noticeable are our adders.

Last week we saw the two males up for the first time, and over the weekend they made an appearance along with one of the females.

Having just emerged, they are not looking their best. Some sand around their eyes and a dull skin. But it won't be long till they have had a swim and cleaned themselves up, a shedding of skin will make them glisten and then of course it will be soon time for them to do their yearly "dance".

Filming Dormice

Last week we welcomed a film crew to do a little bit of filming with some of our animals. I can't say too much at the moment, but they are working on a piece that will be aired at the end of this year at prime time on a major channel. All exciting stuff!

As and when we can let more information out, I will of course let you know, and reminders nearer the time. But for now, one of the things on the list to film were hibernating dormice. 

We are very successful with our breeding dormice, and have three litters lined up for a release later this year, but what some of you may not realise is we also have some "educational" dormice. These are dormice that can not be released for one reason or another, as deemed by the studbook, and so need a permanent home.

It is these dormice which we can use for filming. We very rarely allow this, as we want to keep any disturbance to them to a minimum, but have on occasion gone ahead. So for this little chap above, we delicately took him out of his nest box whilst he was hibernating, placed him in a set for a bit of filming, and then placed him back in is nest box again... none the wiser.

He was a star, even though he didn't know it, and we will make sure he gets a few more hazel nuts when he awakes later in the Spring!

Photo of the Month: February 2017

"Otter Cub" by Bob Howell

Trying to keep things seasonal, and relevant to the yearly activities, we had our eyes open for some lovely photos of our otter cubs... and we weren't disappointed. We have had a lot of them sent in to us and shared over the internet. Our two new foxes seem to still be drawing a lot of attention too, and believe it or not we had a very... VERY small snow flurry at the beginning of the month, which a few of you managed to enjoy.

Of all the fantastic otter cub photos we saw, we decided to chose this one above taken by Bob Howell. We loved the way she still had some grass on her head as she left the water. As always, check the links in names to see more of the photographers pictures.

"Otter Cub" by Zena Saunders

Lot's of playful photos of our cubs, they have been seen often playing with sticks and roots in and out of the water. 

"Otters Playing" by Natasha Jefferies

Elwood is being a great dad as always, and is always up for a bit of playtime with the youngsters.

"Red Fox" by Sean Weekly

We have seen some great portraits of our new foxes, like this one of Basil who is settling in to his new home really well.

"Roe Deer in Snow" by Bob Howell 

And remember that snow flurry I mentioned?.. Well, Bob was one of the photographers who happened to be here, and took this lovely photo of  one of our roe deer with the snow still falling.