Photo of the Month: June 2017

"Hugo the Hedgehog" by David Jacobson

I love the summer here at the Centre... all the youngsters are at the age where they are beginning to show themselves, the longer lighter evenings allow us to get more work done, and it brings more photographers to the Centre meaning more photos of our wonderful animals being shared.

Lots of great shots seen and sent in this past month, our wildcats continuing to be very popular as are our hedgehogs. In the end we picked this photo above taken by David Jacobson as out photo of the month for June. It is a fun photo showing Hugo during some unusual hedgehog behaviour, self anointing himself during a photo day!

Below are some more pictures that caught our eyes. 

"Wildcat Snarl" by Brian Coles

"What does the fox say?" by Simon 

"Summer Hedgehog" by Kirsten Asmussen

"Kendra's Kittens" by Gill Penny

Well done again to David, whose photo will appear in our gallery in the coffee shop next year, and who will be in with a chance to win a photographic day here at the Centre. As always, click on the names above to see more of the photographers pictures.

More new arrivals next week, and some stunning photographs already being shared from our Members Evening which may well be seen here next month. 

Members Evening

Many thanks to all the members who came and spent the evening with us last night. Yesterday was our annual Members Evening, where we stay open for a few more hours to allow members to enjoy the animals in the later, summers light.

It is always a great evening, and we always enjoy allowing you to see the animals during this quieter time, when they are often more active.

Yesterday we put on some extra feeds with the more popular animals, and a couple of extra talks we don't usually do on a normal day. Harvest mice are always popular, so once again we arranged a set up to allow everyone to see them up close and out of their enclosures... also allowing some great photo opportunities for those keen photographers who regularly visit.

Our second extra talk for this year was about our stoats and weasels, where we were able to introduce you to our new arrivals one the past few months.

For those that weren't here last night, we have had some new rescues arrive at the Centre that have needed a new home. 3 weasels and a stoat. Our new stoat came from Folly Wildlife Rescue, where he had been hand reared by one of our members, Margaret. She has done such a great job, that he is now full of health, and extremely friendly. She named him "Columbus", and you can no see him in our hedgerow enclosure. Columbus is such a poser, as you can see in the photo above, and has already met many school groups in his short time here.

Shortly after Columbus arrived, we had a call from a gentleman in Oxford who had accidentally ran over a weasel carrying a baby... Unfortunately the mother died, but miraculously the baby survived. He brought the weasel down to us to look after, and she has now become arguably the friendliest weasel we have ever had. We named her Ginny (Weasley).

I have often told people that female weasels aren't much bigger than a pack of polos, so set up a photo to show this with Ginny performing admirably.

As well as Ginny, two new male weasels have joined our team too... Wilfred and Wallace. Wallace joins Ginny in our hedgerow enclosure, where we hope they will become a breeding pair next season. Wilfred, who is pictured at the top of this post, has moved up to one of our photographic pens opposite our polecats You can see how well he poses already! He will eventually be paired up with our other female weasel, Nina.

So lots of mustelid movements happening, more to come too which we will share over the coming weeks.

Polecat Kitts

Both our breeding pairs of polecats have given birth, and the kits are at that age where they are beginning to come our and explore... although very slowly.

Cassie is currently off display with 5 little ones to look after. Oriel, above, is on display in our main polecat enclosure looking after 4 kits.

The kits have so make the occasional appearance, but are still a little shy like this one hiding behind the grass.

You can see they are catching up to mum in size very quickly, and this little lad quickly dragged her back in to their den rather than have to come out in to the open even more.

Best time to see them will be around their feed times... currently first thing in the morning, and just after the badger talk in the afternoon.

And for you members out there, don't forget our annual Members Evening this Saturday the 1st of July, 5pm- 8pm.