The first thrill of July is how well little Frankie the fox is doing. He is already the centre of a short story posted so I will not repeat anything other than he goes from strength to strength, eating well and growing, but calm.
On the First of July, Duncan MacWhirter, our new vet visited the Conservancy. He has settled in the UK with his family. Hazel his wife is the administrator. They have come from South Africa where Duncan has had enormous experience dealing with large animals including big cats. The first thing he has done is to apply for a gas powered anaesthetic gun licence with the Devon and Cornwall Police. This will be used for our larger cats, the Puma, Lynx and possibly the Fishing Cats which can be a handful sometimes! Duncan is a consultant at Dartmoor Zoo.
John Meek, the Curator at Newquay Zoo part of the Whitley Trust, who own Newquay, Paignton, Shaldon Zoos, and Living Coast in Torquay, came to lunch the next day with his wife, also working at Newquay. After walking around the Conservancy, John declared “It is the best I have ever seen, the animals are in fabulous fettle and you have built so many new enclosures.”
On the 7th July, Rothschilds Mynahs, extinct in the wild, appeared to be feeding young. Unfortunately, that brood did not make it (but we have high hopes as on 31st July, the hen was incubating 3 lovely pale blue eggs).
We, thanks to Rab, have a beautiful new Tortoise House and run. The Tortoises moved into their new centrally heated, all mod cons, executive home in mid-July. At the same time, Rab built a new Hedgehog run and our three unreleasable hogs are enjoying the space and the fresh slugs!
Towards the end of the month, the Keepers came to the Centre’s office. “Stella’s a boy.” This is the young Serval, whose life was saved by Rab. It is surprisingly difficult to sex young animals and we never looked after the initial check, so quite a surprise.
Quite by chance that afternoon, a delightful couple, Laura and Andrew Buckley, who have since become members, visited us. Apparently, they have been looking after a Serval which was sold to them as a pet. This is an abhorrent trade. As a member of BIAZA, we never sell any animal, nor will we buy one. Servals are wild animals and Laura and Andrew have realised that she (the Serval) is not tame in the sense of a cat or dog and wish her to join our breeding unit of Servals. We are thrilled as it brings a new blood line to us.
This is a warning against the trade in Servals and the much reduced animal breed from them which is called a “Savannah”. Although beautiful, nothing compared to the original animal and not suitable for ordinary pet trade. Many times we have been approached by people who have a “intractable Savannah” sometimes having paid as much as a family car for the creature. Rabbits, guinnea pigs or dogs make much better pets. Remember, domestic cats, of which there are reputed to some 7.4 million, kill a vast number of birds, mammals and reptiles and one mammal one rertile and one bird killed a week – that works out at 3 x 52 x 7.4m = over 1100 million – animals killed in an era when we are supposedly understanding more about conservation. Please urge your friends to choose other than domestic cats, or certainly keep them under very close control!
At the end of the month we said many goodbyes to this summers babies. Four young Coati Mundis have moved to a public collection in Sussex.
Our friend Andy from Axe Valley Wild life Park has been waiting patiently has now taken on a mother Lynx with her two babies, together with the young Serval.
This now makes room for Shakira (the expected new Serval).
As we thought our numbers were coming down, and indeed our food bill, we have more births.
We reported last month that our female Fishing Cat had produced 2 fine young on the 2nd June and we were trying a new method, keeping them indoors away from the pond. We did this for six weeks. The kittens benefitted from staying indoors and are now out with father and mother and eating meat. The male has so far been extremely well natured, even letting the kittens take meat away from him while feeding.
At the end of the month, all three Hermanns Tortoise eggs, given to us by Martin and Julia Noble – reptile specialists in the New Forest area, have hatched. They are like tiny jewels. We have moved them to a heat and light controlled vivarium where they look very small!
The first, born on the 25th July was first seen eating on the 31st July. They tend not to eat for several days, instead living off the of the yolk residue within their bodies. It is always worrying even knowing this and one constantly watches for any sign of eating.
Ironically, the third egg hatched in spite of a nasty crack caused when the female laid one egg on top of another. Although smaller than his siblings, we have high hopes.
On the very last day of the month, two tiny Tenrecs were born. They look like two pink coloured jelly beans but grow fast so they should look like miniature Tenrecs within ten days.
All in all an interesting month with quite a lot of wildlife seen as well, notably a number of butterflies: Comma, Ringlet, Silver Border Fritiliary, Wood White, Peacocks and many small browns. Cherry also saw evidence if another breeding bird – 5 young Bullfinches being fed in our lane.