KEEPER FOR A DAY – Peter Drew – Happy Birthday!

 

 

It’s Peter Drew’s 12th birthday today – and Being a Keeper for a Day is his gift from his parents. 

What a charming, personable young man Peter is!  He has been an absolute pleasure to have on our Animal Care Team today!  We look forward to welcoming Peter and his family back to the Park next time they’re on the Island from their home in Reading.

 

 

 

 

 

Chloe Stokes – finishing her Work Experience at Seaview Wildlife Encounter

Chloe is 19 years old and lives with her family in Romsey, Hampshire.  Chloe applied to do a ‘Work Experience Project’ at the Park as part of her challenges and new experiences between A levels and university.  Although Chloe is about to start a degree in Sports Science and not Animal Science she says she has really enjoyed her time here – being outdoors and being involved in something really different from what she would usually be doing!.   Chloe has certainly rolled up her sleeves and become one of the team very quickly – in fact more than one member of the Animal Care Team has said how much she’ll be missed!  Although she’s not very keen on having her photo taken, I managed to snap a couple of images earlier today when Chloe was helping with the Penguins!  We all wish Chloe best of luck with her further studies and hope she might come back at some stage to help out when we’re really busy – now that she knows the ropes!

Baby Harvest Mice – 1st sightings of new litter – 1st September!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning we had the first glimpse of one of a new litter of Harvest Mice!  These images show the tiny youngster’s first venture out of the nest.  Measuring approximately 3 cms in length and weighing only 2 or 3 grams this tiny little chap is just under 2 weeks old.  It’s already nibbling at seeds, scampering around and climbing on grasses and branches.  The image on the right shows the baby Harvest Mouse using it’s prehensile tail like another limb, helping it to grip on and move with agility as it climbs and explores.

A letter of praise and commendation from a passionate visitor to the Park

Hello Ms. Brittan,

I introduced myself to you yesterday in front of the Tortoiseshell Cafe to make you aware as to how wonderful Seaview Wildlife Encounter is. You very kindly gave me a card with the above email addresss on it. Please read below;

The Seaview Wildlife Encounter is a superb wildlife attraction that will appeal to all the family. Admission fee is extremely good value and discounts are available in I.O.W. Attraction booklets. The site is immaculate with very well tendered gardens, water features which are a clever part of certain animal enclosures, a well stocked and clean gift shop, clean and tidy cafe which offers hot & cold lunches, desserts, drinks and ices, and clean toilets  (my visit began at the start of the day and it was clearly evident that the lavatories had just been cleaned and were still presentable over four hours later.). The animal enclosures are spacious and very well cared for. The animals are fed at various times throughout the day which form part of a list of enclosures to visit at those times. The animals all looked content with their surroundings and were fit and well. Signs made visitors aware of active breeding programmes and there was evidence of this in the Breeding Enclosures. There is an immaculate tropical house with free flying exotic birds, huge carp in pools and well tendered plants. There are many features to visit and explore and the highlights for me were: the many wildfowl which wander freely about the estate which visitors can feed with seed available upon entry, being able to have close contact with very friendly Wallabies, the breeding enclosures were super with many young birds being visible, the Willow Walk by the lake was a joy and was very popular with other visitors, and the Humboldt Penguins were great entertainment. Overall, the site is wonderful in very many respects and will appeal to people of all ages.

All staff were polite and I made my comments known to friendly, professional management (before I met two of the management, I witnessed a member of staff who I later discovered was one of the Directors going round litter picking) and they were very grateful as to my comments. It was a well spent six hours and a very good attraction on the island. Very highly recommended.

Above are my comments and they are based on a review that I've entered on TripAdvisor.co.uk which will appear during the next few days once the web site have evalued it. Unfortunately, my review will be the only one as when I entered Seaview's details onto the web site, it came back as 'No trace'!

Thank you for a lovely day and I hope that I didn't delay your well deserved lunch too much.

Very kind regards, Nigel Caldicott.

killer whale eats eskimo (courtesy of u-tube!)

ONE LUCKY PENGUIN!!

‘KOOKIE’ & THE DUCKLINGS – PROGRESS REPORT!

 

Regular followers of our Blog will remember the amazing story we released a few weeks ago about a young Kookaburra and a rare Madagascar Teal duckling becoming friends here at the Park.   We released images to the media and subsequently received calls and emails from various publications and wildlife enthusiasts across both the UK and the US. 

 

 

The image (left) is a reminder of what our ‘odd couple’ looked like 3 weeks ago!  This close bonding took place initially between one duckling and an abandoned Kookaburra chick – however soon after this photo was taken all 3 ducklings from the batch were given the opportunity to cuddle up to ‘Kookie’.  The relationship between these two species is particularly unusual because normally they would be prey and predator (Kookaburras are known to eat the young of other bird species as a normal part of their diet).

 

 

 

 

 

The image on the right shows Kookie as of this morning – considerably more glamorous than the half-bald, prehistoric-looking small bird in the initial photo shoot of a few week’s ago!  We’ve sent in a sample of Kookie’s feather’s to be DNA tested – in order to determine the sex of the bird (I have a sneaking suspicion Kookie’s a ‘she’!)

 

 

 

 

 

Just look at how they’ve all grown …..!

The image on the left shows Kookie and the three rare Madagascar Teal ducklings photographed in an outdoor aviary this morning.  The foursome are now spending their days enjoying the late summer sunshine outside and are brought indoors to a warm enclosure at night. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kookie and the ducklings were pictured hiding in the grass on the floor of their aviary earlier this morning.  Kookie is now spending more time perching on branches and the ducks are starting to venture more adventurously away from her ….. so it’ll be interesting to see how long their relationship continues and whether a separation of the species will occur instinctively as they mature.