New Arrivals

We have welcomed a few new arrivals at the Centre recently. Most noticeably, as many of you regular visitors have already seen, are a couple of new foxes called "Basil" and "Ted". These two foxes were rescued and hand reared at Riverside Animal Rescue Centre. Having become too attached to humans they needed a permanent home to go to, and so this is where we stepped into help.

We have kept it a little quiet, as introducing new animals to an established group can sometimes be a bit tricky, but in the case of these two it seems we had nothing to worry about. After a lengthy introduction process, they all seem to be getting on well. In fact Basil, pictured above, and Ted are already regulars for the keeper talk... and as you can see from above, like posing for the camera.

As well as two new foxes, a couple of months a go a rescued weasel arrived on our doorstep. This little female was on deaths door, and we did not expect her to make it through the first night. But keeper Izzy took her under her wing, and with regular nightly feeds for the first few nights and a lot of TLC managed to nurse her back to full health.

With the attention this little weasel needed to survive, she has become quite attached to Izzy, and so release was not an option. So now "Nina" as we have named her, lives in our hedgerow enclosure for you to meet. She is most active in the later afternoon if you want to try and get a glimpse of her.

Some more exciting news to announce in a week or so, but until then have a look at a few photos of our otters on the ice these past few days!

Animal Catch Up

Wow, what a busy time of year for us. Usually after the summer opening has come and gone we can catch a breather, but booked groups and animal coming and goings have been on the up. All good of course and great that the Centre is doing so well.

So well in fact that our owner, and Centre founder David Mills has been recognised for his hard work and was awarded an MBE for services to wildlife conservation... Congratulations David!

So, we are probably due a bit of a catch up here... You of course remember our wildcat kittens?! Macavity and Kendra had three lovely kittens earlier this year. Unfortunately the slightly runty one didn't make it, but the other two are a picture of health. Both are females and have been named "Morag" and "Merida" They will eventually move on to other collections to aid in the wildcat conservation breeding program that we are part of, with hopes of releases as soon as 2019!

Our red squirrels have had a real bumper year, and we have gained some new lines/genetics with swapping of livestock with other groups around the country. I mentioned earlier in the year another island release which David has been planning... It is still going ahead, and the squirrels we sent over there earlier this year are doing well, but our second lot of squirrels that where going to head over this autumn we have decided to delay.

With the weather looking quite harsh for the winter, we have decided to keep the youngster here where they are safe, and send them over in the spring when things warm up and settle down. Hopefully this will give them a much better start. Much more news on this as and when it happens next year.

The deer rut is over for both the red and fallow. Lots of posturing and dominant calling, but not a lot of actual rutting this year. But probably unsurprisingly Albus Dumbledeer, above, remains the master stag. He better watch out for Olivander next year though as he will be much more of a contender then. 

Some new arrivals to the Centre too, which I will announce over the coming weeks. Next up of course though will be Novembers photo of the month. 

Oh, and what's that I hear you cry... "We haven't seen a pine marten photo for what feels like aaaaages Matt?"... Oh OK then, here you go.

Keep your eye out for our new arrivals over the next couple of weeks.

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.