Youngsters moving on for the New Year

It's that time of year again when our animals are going to begin thinking about pairing up. Already I have seen some courtship chasing in our Red Squirrels, and you all know that we are very hopeful for Pine Marten kitts this year. Of course we hope to have more wildcat kittens, fox cubs and possible otter cubs too. Therefore we have to move on our litters from last year to have more room.

Our wildcat kittens, 1 male 1 female, will be moved off-site with in the next month. The young female has been given the name "Isla" and will be kept at the Centre. She will eventually pair up with Dougal when Una has sadly passed on. The male kitten has a home lined up by the studbook holder, and should leave the Centre during the Spring of this year.

The remaining otter cubs are strong and healthy, and again it seems we have 1 male and 1 female. The female cub will be held back and has been given the name "Emmy". She will eventually pair up with our elderly otter Oscar for his remaining months/years before finding a nice young mate for her. The male cub will be swapped with an otter sanctuary for a new female to pair up with Stirling.

Finally, our 4 fox cubs are to find a home on the Isle of Wight. Here the I.O.W zoo is looking to create a few British attractions. As well as taking on our cubs, they will also be collecting some of our harvest mice and have been having a close look at our walk-through red squirrel enclosure with the idea of imitating it on the island.

Winters Members Day

Thank you to all our members who attended our Winters Members day this past weekend. The day proved to be very successful, and despite the very cold weather we had over 80 brave members turn out.

We started the day with a welcome talk by owner David Mills, highlighting our plans for the coming year. This was shortly followed by a Harvest Mouse talk down in the Dell followed by photographic opportunities. Once again this proved to be a very popular talk, and maybe we can look at featuring it more often.

As usual, regular feeding times were scheduled with keepers on hand to answer any questions, and then a Pine Marten talk told of our high hopes for 2011 and our new enclosure.

The day ended with a special owl display, extending our usual daily talk to show off all 7 of the owls found living in Britain today, including watching 7 owls fly!

Thanks again to all who came and made it as fun and enjoyable day for the staff as well as members. Look forward to seeing you all over the coming year, and of course we will have something special lined up for a members evening in the Summer.

Thank you

2010 Photographic Competition, Overall Winner!

2010 Overall Winner

Scottish Wildcat - Nigel Picknell, philpickproductions.co.uk

"As Portraits go this is a classic. I really like the moody feel that Nigel has created by shooting in Low light and by using the dark background this draws all your attention to this beautiful Cat. The real draw for me though is how Nigel has decided on getting really close to his subject and by doing so, as a viewer you are attracted straight to those wonderful piecing eyes, Great Stuff." - Danny Green

Last years photographic competition was a huge success, seeing over a hundred entries per competition. It is therefore no surprise that the individual winners were hard to pick out. Therefore I called upon the services of the experts, asking a different professional wildlife photographer, to select the winner of each season. From these three winners, the keeping team chose their overall favourite. The Scottish Wildcat portrait taken by Nigel Picknell, winner of the Autumn/Winter competition. Nigel wins a free photographic day here at the British Wildlife Centre.

Below you can see the winners of the other 2 seasons.

 Red Squirrel - Mark Coventry                                          Roe Deer Fawn - Karen Jones

Chosen by Andy Rouse                                                        Chosen by Heather Angel

Spring 2010 Winner                                                                Summer 2010 Winner

A new competition for 2011 will be announced and launched here the first week of February 2011. Keep your eyes peeled for this exciting new format including a fantastic prize!