Seaview Wildlife named as a finalist in the Beautiful South Awards for Excellence 2010

For a second year running Seaview Wildlife has been named as a finalist in the Beautiful South Awards for Excellence 2010 in the category ' Best Visitor Experience'.

These prestigious awards are organised by Tourism South East and celebrate the outstanding tourism businesses and products on offer throughout the whole of Sussex, Kent, Surrey, Hampshire, Isle Of Wight, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

The winners will be announced at a gala dinner held at Mercedes-Benz World in Surrey on 21st October, hosted by Nicolas Owen and featuring entertainment from Tenors Limited - " The Rat Pack of Opera".

Park Director, Lorraine Adams commented " We are delighted to have reached the finalist stages of the awards for the second year in a row. Ours is an extremely competitive industry and it is a real honour that our business has been shortlisted by the judges as potentially the best in the South East of England. We are looking forward to celebrating the industry's achievements on the night and have our fingers firmly crossed that this time we will be bringing home the gold"

More than a dozens worth?

If you remember a few weeks ago we surprised Graham, our handsome Cockerel, by rescuing three retired battery Hens to enjoy freedom at last!

Well they certainly have been busy….One proud hen in particular has made herself a very cosy nest amongst our hay bales in pets corner and just keeps laying!!

Whilst the Hen is busy counting her precious eggs, the otters are counting the minutes it takes to indulge in these free range treats!

And its not only the Otters that love an egg every now and then but they also provide a very tasty treat for our Meerkats too!

And by the look of things these two greedy boys wasted no time in tucking in!

The only question our young female asks is... how do I get in???

Wootton Primary re-visited

With half term week coming up, the pupils of Wootton Primary were given the opportunity to choose a special activity of their choice.

Having visited the Primary school at the beginning of the year we were given the privilege of being asked to re- visit a small class of pupils in Year 1.

Of course Colin and Cassandra, the Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches, jumped at the chance to go along with Tara, Education Officer and Animal Keeper Fern.

And no sooner had we got there the pupils were just as pleased to see them!

Priscilla, our female Bearded Dragon, also enjoyed lapping up the attention……

And Cornelius, Our Corn Snake, was very well behaved, despite the little present he had left for us in his tank!

If you would like more information about educational activities that we offer at Seaview Wildlife then please visit our educational page on our website or email Tara directly on keeper@seaviewwildlife.com

Ten Penguins are re-homed!

Today was the day that Adrian, Senior Keeper from Wingham Wildlife Park, collected ten Humboldt Penguins previously bred here at the park, to be re-homed at the wildlife park situated in Kent.

The Penguins chosen to be re-homed at Wingham Wildlife Park were carefully selected by Head Keeper Craig, with an equal ratio of male and females including a couple of newly paired up penguins in the hope that they will eventually breed.

Before the penguins could be boxed up however, it was important that we ensured that the correct penguins were chosen and that Adrian didn’t accidently slip our well loved Dippy in the back of the van! Luckily each Penguin has its very own micro-chip id which can be detected using a high tech micro-chip scanner making it a quick and effective method to identify individuals.

Once we said our goodbyes each penguin was placed in a spacious, comfy and secure box ready for the journey to their new home….

We will keep you posted on how they all settle in!

Quotes of the week from our Visitors Book

" Wow! What a great time - we fed & stroked nearly everything we could. Brilliant!! Louise & Lee, Eastbourne.

" Beautiful place! Really relaxing, animals all look happy and healthy!" Kev & Beck, Bideford, N. Devon

" Great place second visit!" Julie, Andrew, Matthew, Leeds

" 2nd visit for all of us - just had to come back" Elizabeth & David, Newbury

" Great landscaping, friendly staff - the best Wildlife Park - especially feeding the animals! " Rosemary, Enfield."

" Back again - 26th year of visiting and still returning!" Catherine, IOW

RE-HOMING OF TEN HUMBOLDT PENGUINS TO WINGHAM WILDLIFE PARK

We are proud to be one of the most successful breeders of Humboldt Penguins in Europe. Since we introduced Humboldt Penguins to our Collection in 1997 we have been involved in an international breeding programme resulting in our supplying a number of European wildlife parks and zoos. Moving healthy stock though to other Collections ensures ongoing genetic diversity and strengthens captive bloodlines.

Next week we’re pleased to be re-homing ten of our Penguins to Wingham Wildlife Park, Kent. As Wingham haven’t had Humboldt Penguin’s in their Collection before (and apparently there are currently no others in the county of Kent), one of their senior Keepers is due to spend a day with us prior to the birds’ departure – to be ‘shown the ropes’ in terms of their husbandry and care. We look forward to welcoming the Wingham representative/s to Seaview Wildlife and trust that they will enjoy their new charges as much as we always have.

Here is a small collage with just a few of our special Humboldt Penguin moments over the last few months:

VISIT – VIDEOGRAPHER FROM TSE BEAUTIFUL SOUTH AWARDS

 

We were very pleased to welcome Lee today from The Tourism Network – whose remit was to shoot a video of the Park ready to present at the Beautiful South award ceremony on 21st October – Gala dinner.  Last year we were proud to win the Silver Award in the category ‘Best Visitor Attraction in the south east of England’.  This year we’ve entered the same category and are extremely excited at having been shortlisted once again! 

We walked around the Park together and fortunately the weather brightened with every moment!  Lee had planned to spend an hour on the shoot but ended up spending nearly three and a half hours with us!  It was great fun!  Lee said he has taken videos at hundreds of wildlife parks and tourist attractions and, in his opinion rates Seaview Wildlife Encounter up there with the very best!  Thanks Lee – and we look forward to seeing you again at the gala awards dinner on the 21st!

I took a few photos as we went – as a memento of the day!

 

We started off at the Penguin Pool – the image on the right shows Lee with his video camera rolling ….

The image on the left is our Darling Dippy having a waddle around with two lovely youngsters who kindly obliged us with some photos this morning!  Left of the image is Lily, then Mum Jane, and on the right is Zach (Zach’s Mum, Melissa is just out of view!)  It goes without saying that Dippy enjoyed being the centre of attention and is seen here stretching his flippers out in a typical relaxed pose for the camera!

 

 

 

On the left: Lily and Zach get even closer to Dippy.

 

On the right: young Zach took a real shine to one of the Albino Wallabies youngsters!

 

 

 

 

Left: Fern, one of our Animal Care Team, was great with the kids and allowed Zach to really indulge his interest in the gentle Wallaby mob!

 

Right: Fern holds Mr Fluffy for the rather handsome Zach

 

 

 

 

 

Zach (left) was completely enthralled by the Wallabies!

 

 

Lily (right) took the opportunity to skip and jump around with one of the larger Wallabies!

 

 

 

 

 

Below: Lee and Boris the Moluccan Cockatoo eyeing each other out !!

 

 

 

Above: Mums and kids feeding the wildfowl down at the lower lake.

 

 

 

 

 

Left: Damian is one of a pair of Green-Crested Touracos that free-fly in our Tropical House.  He’s inquisitive, cheeky and very forward!  Lee took some footage of Damian on my head and I captured a couple of shots of Damian checking out Lee’s video equipment!