Animals on TV

Have you seen the John Lewis Christmas advert for this year yet? Not giving too much away, but it features some British wildlife.

So why am I mentioning it?.. Well, a few weeks a go "Sky" visited us to film part of a TV short to accompany this advert. They wanted to produce a piece showing the public what they could do in their gardens at home to help our wildlife.

Presenter Patrick Aryee, pictured above with one of our red squirrels, was filmed with a few of our animals and they used some stock footage that they filmed here on previous visits. Along with what they filmed with a South London community taking part in the Hedgehog Street campaign, they put together a piece called "Garden Friends" which aired shortly after the premiere of the John Lewis Christmas advert.

To see the advert, follow this link to the Wildlife Trusts page who were this years John Lewis charity campaign partners. Here you can also see and learn about many ways in which we can help our wildlife in our gardens at home.

Wildlife Trusts - John Lewis Advert

Below is the short "Garden Friends", that stars many of our animals, including Hugo the Hedgehog and Florence the owl.

October 2016: Photo of the Month

"Otter Standing" by Karen Gray

Temperatures are getting colder, days are getting shorter, but it doesn't seem to be stopping you photographers out there. We have seen a surprising amount of grass snake photos this past month... Surprsing that he is still up to be seen, despite the colder weather, and surprising due to how shy he used to be. Good old Gerald though, putting on a good show.

It wasn't a grass snake photo we chose though, we went for the photograph above taken by Karen Gray of Elwood standing near the edge of the pond.

A standing otter photo is difficult to take for many reasons, and this is one by Karen is one of the best I have seen. Elwood is posing majestically and looking beautifully in to the frame. The composition is spot on, and you have the added bonus of a great background. Clean, non distracting, and showing their semi aquatic habitat perfectly. Great photo Karen.

"Otter" by Gary Chisholm

Unlike a lot of our animals, our otters seem to prefer the cooler weather. Lots of lovely otter portrait were seen this month, like this one above taken by Gary Chisholm.

"Red Deer Rut" by Stan Maddams

And of course an October photo of the month post wouldn't be complete with at least one deer picture. Our stags didn't really rut this year, but the occasionally 'practice' tussle was had such as this one caught by Stan Maddams. Hopefully this is good signs for next year!

Well done again to Karen, her photograph will be in the gallery next year in our Coffee shop and is in the running to win a photographic day here at the Centre next year.

Hibernation and Winter Talks

We have had a great year for dormouse births this year, three litters between our two pairs see us housing 11 kits which will be released back to the wild next year, along with several others bred at other Centres across the UK. 

As with previous years, these new youngsters will hibernate here over the winter before being prepared for release as they emerge from their winter sleep next year. 

With hibernation in mind, it is not just our hazel dormice that hibernate. Our edible dormice do too, along with our hedgehogs and bats.

During this time these animals lower their heart rate, breathing rate and body temperature. They sleep for long periods of time, but do still stir occasionally on milder nights.

Although none of our other animals truly hibernate, some do cut down their activity a lot. Badgers being one of the main ones.With this in mind, along with the winter closing time of 4pm, we have to alter our Keeper Talk schedule a bit... and it a return of an old favourite. The polecats.

From this weekend keep in mind we now close at 4pm with last entrance at 3pm, due to the evenings getting darker sooner.

Also, take a quick look at our new Keeper Talk schedule linked above. It is the usual winter schedule, and simply means no more hedghogs, badgers or pine martens. Owls is now at 3pm, and we have added polecats in to the schedule at 1pm.