September Update

 

This past month we have been adapting the way in which we work to allow groups to still come and visit us. Our photographic days have been extremely popular, and we have even had a couple of schools and private groups come to see us all in line with our restrictions and the regulations, and of course we are still open to the public at weekends to pre booked online tickets.

Before lockdown earlier in the year, we had just had two new pine marten enclosures built. They remained vacant for most of the summer while we were short staffed and still catching up with things, but this past month we finally managed to move our new martens on to display. An older male called Columbo is in one, and a young spritely female called Lyra in the other. Both are in the Dell, and almost certainly if you see one it will be Lyra. 

She is pictured in the above two photographs and is settling in extremely well.

Our red squirrels have been very active recently, and are beginning to grow through their ear tufts for the winter. 

It's that time of year once again when we need to use the extra time we have with less groups to do any of the bigger enclosure tidying jobs. The main thing with the squirrels is to keep the tree line back from the surrounding fence, and we have made a start on this.

As well as our two mothers and kittens on display, we have another pair in the end enclosure. They are both extremely shy, but do occasionally come out at the end of the day for a few late stragglers to see. They are stunning cats though, so we thought we best introduce them to those who haven't seen them yet. 

Above is Atticus. He is a very handsome cat who came to us from the West Country Wildlife Photographic Centre. Very rarely seen, but when he is it is usually in the back right corner of the enclosure where he tends to venture out later int he afternoon... waiting until it is quieter to come down to find his food. 

And this stunning cat is Agnes... Beautiful! She has the greenest eyes I have ever seen on a wildcat! Another shy one, but she is slowly getting bolder and usually spotted on the platform in the centre of the pen or one of the logs at the front. 

Agnes is beginning to come out for food when the keepers are in with them now, and building her confidence. We hope that she and Atticus may well breed next year for more kittens.

Talking of kittens, I guess you can never have too many updates on them! There is no doubt that they have been the most popular thing at the Centre over the summer, and they continue to be a draw despite how fast they are growing. 

Above is one of Kendra's kittens, while below is one of Hilda's.

Wildcat Kitten Update

We have had to adapt our photographic days slightly since re-opening to comply with new guidelines/restrictions and to keep everyone, photographers and staff, safe. All the same great opportunities are there for you to take some fantastic photos, just in smaller group sizes. 

We still take photographers in to all the same enclosures, and all the animals have been as brilliant as usual, but there is no doubt that the real stars have been our wildcat kittens!

There are a lot of visitors photos of our kittens up on the interweb on various social sites etc. I hadn't had the chance to take many recent photos of them myself, but looking through the many than had been shared, I had to make time to spend with them one evening last week. 

They are growing fast, but still look very kitten like. Kind of going in to that leggy stage. Hilda's two kittens, who are slightly younger, seem to be a little shyer but still do venture out most of the time. Kendra's two however are as bold as anything. Often meeting us by the door as we enter the enclsoure now. 

Their favourite spot seems to be under the gorse on the right hand side of the enclosure, and if you visit you will see the flattened grass where they they rolled around and played on. 

Hilda's prefer to stay a little further back, and enjoy the large logs that stretch through the middle of the pen. 

This is one of Hilda's above, she certainly knows she's a looker posing like that :-) 

We will keep the kittens on display up to the end of the year, so still lots of chances to see them grow and mature over the following weeks. Then early next year we will have to start thinking about moving them off display before they move to their new homes, to allow the parents to hopefully breed again. 

If you want to see them, they are often active throughout the day now, and our wildcat keeper talk times are still 11.30am and 2.00pm.

Baby Snakes

Adderlings! OK, baby adders or "neonates". But I prefer to call them adderlings. 

Aren't they beautiful! Stunning little miniatures of their adult form... Bellatrix, our female, mated earlier this year after the boys showed off with their dancing and last weekend she gave birth. Unlike many snakes, adders don't lay eggs but give birth to live young... or to get a bit complicated, they appear to give birth to live young but in fact they develop inside the female in little egg sacs which usually erupt just before or while giving birth. 

Female adders usually have around double figures of young, and we have seen eight at once so far... so a good litter. 

Daddy's little girl!.. This gives you the scale (get it, scale :-) ) of how big the adderlings are when first born. This is a one day old adderling basking next to one of our males. 

They are full independent from the moment they are born. The father, and even the mother, has nothing to do with them once they are out in the real world. The adder is our only native venomous snake in this country, and even from day one they can administer a venomous bite. 

But look at her... butter wouldn't melt!

They do have a bad reputation, or a misunderstanding is perhaps a better way of putting it. Adders are very docile animals, and will usually be long gone before you see them out in the wild. Much rather slinking away than to be near us. Usually they would only bite if someone tried to handle them when they didn't want to be, or they where accidentally stepped on... but then wouldn't most wild animals do this!

In the extremely unlikely event that you were bitten by an adder, then you would likely just get a painful swelling and feel a little sick/unwell for a few days... That being said, if you do get bitten by an adder, it is always best to seek medical advice just in case you react badly to it and require some extra care or treatment. 

Oh, they are stunning little snakes though. I spent an hour in with them the morning after they were born and before we opened to the public. We had about 5 adderlings basking on the logs, and when I jumped in the adults all stayed but the youngsters slinked off. 

Sneaking up to the log pile, and hanging around for twenty minutes they slowly begun to crawl back to bask. One even had a slight altercation with a spider, I'm not sure who was more surprised than the other, but fun to watch. 

If we are talking about baby snakes, we have to mention our grass snakes! 

We had about 100 eggs in there or so, and about 60 odd have hatched. Take that all those that say they have never seen our grass snakes! :-)

They are much shyer than our adders, but the grass snakelings (hmm, that doesn't quite work as well) our little grass snake neonates are great and some lucky visitors have seen them exploring their compost and swimming across their ponds. 

They are pretty cute too aren't they!.. Maybe not so much as the adders, but still something about them. Completely harmless too. 

They are a little older, a couple of weeks or so now, but similar in size to our adderlings so pretty difficult to spot. When curled up our little neonates of both types are not much larger than the size of a fifty pence piece.

If you are visiting soon, just spend a little time up by the snake enclosures, and with a little patience hopefully you will get to see these stunning little strikers.