Newsletter Oct 2019
8th Oct 2019
New Black Fallow Deer
In addition to two adorable fallow deer fawns, we've taken delivery of one male and two female black fallow deer who have also joined our herd at Wildwood Kent. Typically, fallow deer have a spotted coat and a black stripe down the tail. However, fallow deer are very variable in colour and our black fallow have black shading to greyish brown throughout the year with no light-coloured tail patch or spots.
They're still young, so the difference in pelage is not immediately noticeable. As they grow older, the black shading will become more obvious.
Red Squirrel Kits
Our red squirrels have been busy this year! We have just welcomed 5 new kits to our Kent park courtesy of our breeding pair situated next to the lynx enclosure. They're all doing very well and will start exploring over the coming weeks.
Blackneck Pheasants
Seven 10 week-old blackneck pheasants have recently arrived at our Kent park. They're currently in an enclosure next to the rat barn, but will eventually be living alongside our red squirrels when mature.
The blackneck pheasant was originally introduced to Britain many centuries ago and was the dominant form until the mid 1800s. Today, this bird is incredibly rare in Britain as other species, such as the ring-necked pheasant, are easier to breed for game hunting.
Fluff & Scruff Heading Into Torpor
Our brown bears, Fluff and Scruff, are now spending the coming few months in their small enclosure for their annual torpor, and we have closed the bear viewing platform for the winter. They're likely to be awake for another few weeks, but are quickly slowing down and not very active.
We do miss them over the winter, but torpor is so beneficial for them that we are happy to encourage it. The boys will be back in their large enclosure in Spring, fresh and healthy from their rest.
Lynx Incoming!
Recent visitors may have noticed a new enclosure being built next to our lynx sisters, Cara and Shria. We're happy to announce that we'll soon be welcoming new lynx to Wildwood Kent.
We'll let you know as soon as they arrive!
Arctic Fox Experiences
Get up close and personal with our two Arctic Foxes, Teddy and Lyra. You'll be granted exclusive access to their enclosure where you can learn all about our Arctic Foxes and will be feeding them their main meal of the day.
Wolf Experiences
Wildwood Wolf Experiences are a unique opportunity to meet and learn all about Wildwood's family of six European grey wolves with exclusive behind the scenes access. Participants will learn all about this intelligent species before getting up close to our pack and feeding them through the wire of their enclosure.
Thank You PTES!
A huge thank you to our friends at People's Trust for Endangered Species who have kindly donated funds for our Hazel Dormouse Breeding Programme. Their generosity has enabled us to introduce 5 new breeding enclosures at our parks in Kent and at Wildwood Escot.
We'll soon be seeing baby dormice from these enclosures, which will eventually be reintroduced to British woodlands where they have previously become extinct.
Keep Your Eye Out!
BBC4's upcoming programme 'Inside The Bat Cave' features our very own bat expert Hazel Ryan, and was partly filmed at our Kent park. The programme is scheduled for broadcast on Halloween, 31st October and features Hazel highlighting the essential rescue and rehabilitation of bats undertaken at Wildwood.
Harvest Mouse Survey
It's the last Harvest Mouse survey of the season in the last year of our 5 year citizen science project. If you are interested in helping us reach our goal of surveying the whole of Kent for Harvest Mice you can attend our free “Harvest Mouse Ecology and Surveying” course at Wildwood Kent on Saturday 23rd November. The day course will give you all the background and field skills required to go out and survey your local area for Harvest Mice. Please email courses@wildwoodtrust.org to find out more.