Animal Keeper Vacancy

A new position to join my team of keepers has become available. If you are a keen, hard working person who is passionate about British wildlife then head over to our website to find out more details on the position and how to apply. You must have at least an ND in Animal Management or equivalent.

Check back on the blog, as over the next week I will be publishing a post on a keepers role here to dispel some myths people have about what we do. This will give you more of an idea of what you will be expected to do if you apply for the position.

Look forward to hearing from some of you.

BWC Photo Competition 2013

Short eared owl by Peter Warne

Midnight Friday saw our photo competition for 2013 come to an end, and we have been busy over the weekend with our initial thumb through all the entries.

As always, the support has been great. Animal Portrait continued to be the most popular category, Animals in motion threw out arguably the most varied of photos and after a late surge of entries the Juniors showed there are some real budding young photographers out there!

Have a look at these photos on this page, taken from flickr, to hopefully encourage you to wander over there to see the many great entries. Unfortunately we are unable to display all the entries submitted via email, which make up another half of all submitted photographs.

Red fox, Frodo, hides behind trees by Crowlem

Popular animals this year seem to be the badgers, perhaps with the controversy of the cull getting people to come and see what all the fuss is about. Surprisingly water voles was another common entry in animal portraits and habitat, and of course the foxes where as popular as ever... with Frodo continuing to be the arguably the most photographed fox in the world!

Leonie and Flo by Dap's images

We always like to see which keeper turns up the most in our Animals and their keepers section. No surprises that it is always the girls! Does that mean they are more photogenic, or just that they don't work as hard as the Tom and spend more time playing with the animals?

Wildcat by Ian Rentoul

My favourite category every year is Animals in motion. This usually throws out some stunning images, and on first glance it seems that we are not disappointed this year. Owls are always a popular entry for this section, but this year has also seen a lot of otter photos... otters swimming, jumping, playing and running.

 

Barn owl in last light by Izzy's photos

Thanks to everyone who entered and supported the competition for 2013, the number and standard of photos has been fantastic, and will really create a stunning gallery to help advertise the photo opportunities people can have if the visit the BWC.

I will be announcing the shortlisted entries every week in the lead up to the new year, with the winners announced over the first couple of months of 2014. This will start next Monday with the announcement of the shortlisted entries for the JUNIOR section.

Adults "Think" they say the funniest things...

Following on from last week, we didn't want to leave the adults out. Do they say the funniest things?

Well yes, sometimes, but other times it is just things that are no longer funny or original and that we have heard time and time again. Take a look below, and again, please take with the humour intended.


 - "That's a funny looking animal!" Pointing at a keeper in an enclosure

 - "That's a very big weasel" Looking at a keeper in the weasel pen

 - "Oh look, this is the homosapien pen" Looking at a keeper in a pen

You get the drift...


 - "What's the difference between a stoat and a weasel?.. Weasels are weasily recognised, where as stoats are stoatily different!"

 - "You can come round and do my windows if you like!" While a keeper is washing the windows

 - "The otters aren't out... Dam!"

I'll give you a couple of minutes for that one...


 - "Do you find this animal living in Britain?"

 - "What country do you find this animal in?"

Think about the last 2 :-)


 - "Are you all voluntary?"

 - "Are you training to be a vet?"

 - "When are you going to work in a proper zoo?"

 - "Oh I'd love to have a job like yours, and play with animals all day!"

 - "What do you do when you are not open?.. It must be so quiet!"



The last few often lead to misconceptions about what we do, so I have lined up a post for couple of weeks time about a keepers role at the BWC!