Farewell to Clyde

Sadly last Friday Clyde the pine marten passed away. He died peacefully in his sleep of old age, he wasn't far from twenty! Many of you who have visited over the end of last year, early this year, will know he was getting very frail and slow. Due to his cataracts he was blind for the last few months, but knowing his pen inside out was still able to climb and wander around to find everything.

Working closely with our animals, you always build a bond with them, and as most of you will know I had a particular bond with our pine martens. Clyde was one of the first pine martens I ever worked with, and as such helped to guide and nurture my love and respect for these beautiful animals. I spent a lot of time working with him on an almost daily basis, and as such he was arguably the most friendliest pine marten you would of met!

Losing an animal is always a sad time, but some hit your harder than others. I talk to the animals, crazy I know, but I really think it helps them to associate your voice with calm and stressless times. Clyde I used to talk to about everything, all the good and bad going on in my little world, and so in some ways you could say he knew me better than anyone!

New Wildcats

All new cat pens are now occupied, and we have three new cats... or at least new on view... to introduce to you. Later last year we collected a couple of sisters who were born at Edinburgh zoo. "Hilda" above and "Agnes" below. They are both to become part of the breeding programme, and to take over from Kendra and Iona who have done so well for us in the past in rearing kittens. 

You can see that Agnes is still rather shy. She was the last cat to be put on display, while we were waiting for her new enclosure to dry out after the works and slight flooding, but while there are no visitors coming in it is the perfect chance for her to settle in well. I tried to get a nice photo of her over the last few days, but alas... she decided she didn't want to pose.

Another new cat who came to us earlier this year from the West Country Wildlife Centre, was "Atticus" above. Handsome face! He is still rather young, and still settling in, but will also be joining our breeding programme. Another shy cat, but again hopefully will settle well while we are closed and be a little bolder once visitors start to come back.

Hilda though!.. she is a superstar already. Some of you have met her already, as she was on display for the last weekend before our shutdown. She is the opposite of her sister, very bold, and seems to love the attention. She has been paired up with our male Braveheart. Some more photos of her below... check out those stunning green eyes!

Otter Cub Update

Well, what a strange weekend... the first weekend for over six years that we have not been open to the public! This is what our otters think about all of this, above...

But seriously, we do have to take all this seriously. It seems that news about the corona virus has been around for a long time, but at the same time the potential impact and seriousness of it all has been rapidly becoming clearer in recent days. We have to do what we can not just to protect ourselves, but those more vulnerable that we may come in to contact with and to do our best to help, even if only a small way, to relieve any pressure on the NHS and the amazing work they are doing.

So, to update those who don't follow our social media, the Centre is now in lockdown as of last Friday evening. We feel this is the best thing to do morally and ethically to protect our visitors, members of staff and the wider community.

Don't worry about the animals, they are fine, I am here 24/7 and will keep them healthy and happy. I will do my best to do a post here once a week to update you all on what is happening, and if I can more frequent posts (maybe even some instagram stories now my beautiful sister-in-law has showed me how to, wooo!) on our social media too. I'm sure many of you will want to keep up with how the animals are doing, or at least have a little break now and then from the constant worrying news we are being exposed to lately.

I will likely not have time to reply to any or all questions and comments though, so any important questions or queries please email in, our owner David will be checking emails most days and should?.. be able to help... oh lord :-)

Back on topic of the heading, what's a good way to forget the covid-19 news for just a little while, an Otterly Over the top Overload of Otter Obligingness Originals of Otters!

In other words, heres a load of photos of our otter cubs from the last few weeks, maybe too many for one post, but who cares in these times!

Take care of yourselves and each other, and see many of you back at the Centre when things get a little bit back to normality.