August 2009 - Tiger Day a Grrrreat success! Plus Meerkat Manor Now Open
‘Another year older, another year wiser' – maybe not so in Amba the tiger's case but she certainly enjoyed celebrating her 11 th birthday on Tuesday 4 th August. The theme for the day was to raise awareness of the plight tigers face in the wild and the disturbing fact that it is predicted these magnificent creatures will be extinct in the wild in 20 years time. Helping to deliver this message was Dr Tom Maddox, Field Researcher for charity 21 st Century Tiger, who enlightened us all with the work taking place in Indonesia and what we can do to help the tigers escape extinction.
On a lighter note Anthony Tonkin, defender for Cambridge United Football Club (a.k.a ‘The Amber Army'), was a great sport (excuse the pun) throwing footballs into the tiger enclosure for Amba and Rana to play with, signing autographs and opening Meerkat Manor our new Meerkat house which allows visitors to get up close to these cheeky little fellows!
Anthony Tonkin, defender for Cambridge United opening Meerkat Manor
Anthony Tonkin, defender for Cambridge United with Boomer the lemur
Anna Brookfield from Aceface donated her talents for the day facepainting animal faces and created lots of ‘mini Ambas' and around the park (for more information email ann.brookfield@ntlworld.com ). Wild nail painting, bouncy castle, raffle, auction, duck race and Billy Banana's Magic Show all helped to make the day special and raise over £600 for 21 st Century Tiger.
Thank you to all our volunteers including Bassingbourn Air Cadets.
Don't forget you can still sponsor Rebecca Willers, Animal Collections Manager, to swim 10km on the 8 th September just visit
www.justgiving.com/tiger10kmswim. All money raised will go to 21 st Century Tiger.
July 2009 -
Rainforest Day starts kicks off our Big Tuesdays
After the recent success of our 25th Anniversary celebrations, staff and animals alike are buzzing with excitement for this summers line up!
Every Tuesday throughout the summer holidays, animal keepers will be entertaining, as well as educating you about the important work we undertake in conserving endangered species in the wild. Kicking off with Rainforest day on 28th July, CEO of the World Land Trust, John Burton, will be here to open the event at 12pm. Animal Keeper, Chris Knowles, will be giving talks throughout the day about his recent trek into the heart of the Atlantic Rainforest searching for new, unrecorded species. Of course there will also be lots of fun and games to keep the children entertained from face painting, and bouncy castles to tombolas and children entertainers!
All events start at 12pm, finishing with cake at 4pm. As well as highlighting the awareness of the plight of endangered species, our events are also geared towards raising much needed funds for the associated charities. We are passionate about our contribution to saving animals in the wild, and have to date raised over £25,000 for conservation charities, in addition to the Hedgehog Re-habilitation programme we have self funded for the last 30 years.
" We wanted to do something special this year in honour of our 25th Anniversary," Animal Manager, Rebecca Willers "By celebrating the work of all the organisations we have worked alongside over the years, we can help to raise awareness of what is happening to species worldwide. If nothing is done, it will be too late to save some of these beautiful creatures from wild extinction"
So if you want to keep your little ones amused this summer, whilst helping to save endangered animals in the wild, come along to one of the event days and support a very good cause!
April 2009 -
Join us at Shepreth Wildlife Park and go wild this Easter!
Learn how bats fly in the dark and why wolves howl. Get ‘hands on' with bugs and snakes, and chat to our owls after their
flying display!
Enjoy the various daily entertaining and educational keeper events, every half hour between 11.30am and 5pm.
Take a mini-train ride and let off steam in our exciting play area, complete with castle, slide, soft play room, sand pit and trampoline.
Stroke ‘Zumach and Friday' the donkeys, hand feed ‘Monti' the muntjac, meet the wallabies, deer and sheep, and of course don't forget ‘Boris' the ‘larger than life' pig.
Visit our Education & Discovery Centre, where you can come face to face with ‘Marty' the snake and ‘Maurice' the millipede. Dissect owl pellets and learn about the different birdsongs of British species.
On Easter Sunday it's a ‘Wild Life with Wildlife'. Photographer, Pete Skinner, will be looking at the Animals of Africa and Britain, offering presentations between 11am and 1pm.
BEST OF ALL come on our grand Easter Egg Hunt. Search through the pathways, look up into the trees, or maybe even under the straw to find those winning tokens! Children quick enough to track one of the lucky stars down can exchange it in our gift shop for a delicious chocolate egg. The Shepreth Wildlife Park Easter Egg Hunt will start at 10am Friday 10 th April and finish on Easter Monday. 50 tokens will be hidden throughout each day.
Come join us down at the park and enjoy a happy holiday with all the animals at Shepreth this Easter… Ringo Coati, the park mascot, looks forward to meeting you soon.
December 2008 - Hedgehog love!
The keepers at Shepreth Wildlife Park would like to say a very BIG THANK YOU to everyone's generosity in our recent 'Hedgehog Appeal'. We were overwhelmed by the phenomenal support we received and are so grateful for all the blankets and cat food donated from people all over Cambridgeshire! We now have enough blankets and newspaper, but are still very pleased to receive any food that people are kind enough to donate!
All the hedgehogs are well and enjoying their dinners!
November 2008 - Visit Us for FREE!
We are offering all members of the armed forces, emergency services, doctors and nurses FREE ADMISSION to the wildlife park between November and February 2008.
But don't keep this fantastic offer to yourself, make sure you tell all your colleagues so they too can visit us for FREE.
This offer applies to serving members only with proof of identification. Other membersof your family/friends will be subject to normal admission prices. This offer may not be used in conjunction with any other offer.
September 2008 - Keepers go fundraising Crazy!
The keepers at Shepreth are keen to do their bit for the conservation charities sponsored by the Wildlife Park, and will each be attempting a fundraising activity on 8th September for their chosen endangered species.
Rebecca Willers, Animal Collection Manager, will be swimming 5km in aid of 21st Century Tiger. “What better way to celebrate the park curator's 60th and the male tiger's 10th birthdays on September 8th, then raising money to save the last few remaining tigers left in the wild.”
Other activities being attempted (and their chosen charities) on the day include:
Head Keeper – Kat Lyon – 8 mile dog walk (Madagascar Fauna Group)
Interpretation Officer – Grace Dickinson – Wallowing in the pig mud (World Land Trust)
Interpretation Officer – Chris Knowles – Worms in his under pants! (World Land Trust)
Animal Keeper – Jill Driver – Rowing round Lemur Island (Red Wolf Coalition)
Education Officer – Lanie Sweetman – Hoping everywhere (Amphibian Ark)
Anyone wishing to sponsor any of the keepers please email office@sheprethwildlifepark.co.uk
August 2008 - The Mother of all mothers!
Shepreth Wildlife Park is proud to announce the birth of…..over 30 babies and all to the same mum! And this mum is no ordinary mother, she has pincers for hands, and a rather nasty sting in her tail. What is she? …the emperor scorpion!
The emperor scorpion or imperial scorpion (Pandinus imperator) is native to Africa , and is one of the largest species of scorpion in the world, with adults averaging about 20 cm in length. It's life span ranges from 5-8 years making it the most popular scorpion in the pet trade , which has led to the unfortunate over-collecting in the wild.
Despite their ferocious look, in captivity scorpions generally only feed on crickets and spend their time burrowed, due to their timid and reclusive nature. When frightened, the emperor scorpion will actually run, but if cornered will enter a 'threat posture'. If continually harassed the scorpion is likely to sting and may pinch with its claws, the sting, although toxic, has varying affects on people; some report no effect while others suffer severe pain.
Scorpions give birth to live young, after a period of 9 to 18 months depending on temperature and food availability. Usually an average of 15 young are born, making Shepreth's new mother very special indeed! Baby scorpions, or scorplings, are very vulnerable when born, being unable to defend themselves. They are totally reliant on their mother and hence take a ride on her back, and this is how you will find them when you visit their exhibit in ‘Water World and Bug City' at Shepreth Wildlife Park. As they moult and grow, they will begin to venture off and explore their new world.
Despite appearing near-black in colour, the emperor glows a greenish-white when exposed to UV light. Try pressing the special button next to their exhibit at Shepreth to see this phenomenon for yourself!
May 2008 - Baby boom!
Narooma is the proud mum again this year of a little baby joey! Narooma, who has successfully reared three babies during her time at the park, can be seen in her paddock proudly showing off the latest addition to the wallaby gang!
Isis the Egyptian fruit bat, who only arrived at the park late last summer, is also the proud mum of one. Isis' baby can be seen quite clearly hanging off mum trying to suckle! Nearly as big as mum, keepers at the park are hoping the youngster will fledge soon and give Isis a much needed break from carrying all that added weight!
Other babies due to make an appearance include: mara, prairies dogs, pygmy slow loris, polecats, meerkats and of course lots of baby ducklings!
8th April 2008 - Hedgehogs released... (hedgehog Rehab...click here.)
Kind members of the public from all over hertfordshire offered to take the hedgehogs and release them in suitable 'wild' areas over a period of 4-5 days, supplying the hedgehogs with lots of food and warm shelter until the hedgehogs no longer returned.
"We are very grateful for the response we received from the general public and are pleased that dozens of hedgehogs have now safely been returned back to the wild. A destiny which looked very unlikely back in October 2007!" Rebecca Willers, Animal Collection Manager said
"The staff at the park are very happy that all the effort with these prickly creatures has not been vein over the past 6 months, and are now looking forward to a short break, before the summer abandoned hoglets start arriving!"
8th February 2008 - New keeper talks & feeding timetable...
After feeding your little monkeys, you can watch the keepers feed theirs, or better still come and test their knowledge at one of the many 2008 daily talks:
11.30am – Bug Experience
12.00pm – Lemur Feeding
12.30pm – Nocturnal House Feeding
1.00pm – Raccoon Enrichment
1.30pm – Birds of Prey Experience
2.00pm (Weekdays) Tiger Talk & 3.00pm (Weekends) - Feeding Monday, Thursday & Saturday ONLY
3.30pm – Otter feeding & Wolf Talk
4.00pm – Bug Experience
4.30pm – Bat Talk
5th February 2008 - Pygmy slow loris...
The Nocturnal House is soon to participate in their first EEP, international breeding programme for Pygmy slow loris. These tiny Asian nocturnal primates are due to arrive early 2008, where visitors to the park can see these weird and wonderful creatures of the night up close!
16th July 2007 - New baby potoroo...
We have a new addition to our potoroo family. On July 16th a tiny pink hairless baby, not to dissimilar to a baby rat, was spotted by one of their keepers inside the pouch.
Did you know?
Potoroo's are marsupials in which the female typically has a pouch (called the marsupium, from which the name 'Marsupial' derives) in which it rears its young through early infancy.
The pregnant female develops a kind of yolk sac in her womb which delivers nutrients to the embryo. The embryo is born at a very early stage of development (at about 4-5 weeks), upon which it crawls up its mother's belly and attaches itself to a nipple (which is located inside the pouch). It remains attached to the nipple for a number of weeks. The offspring later passes through a stage where it temporarily leaves the pouch, returning for warmth and nourishment.
12th June 2007 - Potoroo's arrive...
On the 12th June 1 male and 2 female long-nosed potoroos arrived at the wildlife park to take up residence in the nocturnal house along side the Egyptian fruit bats.
Potoroo's are found on the southeastern coast of Australia and the island of Tasmania. They are the smallest of all macropods and are strictly nocturnal.
