Discontinuing my blog

It is with some regret that I decided not to return to the zoo after my summer break (taken to finish my Masters). Therefore there is no need to continue with this blog.

I'm now trying to get my website up and running (again) so any further blog posts regarding future volunteer  projects (and my recent Australia trip) can be found at http://wildaboutphotosonline.co.uk/blog

Thanks :-)

South Lakes Wild Animal Park

So, I've been a little slack on my blog recently. I like to kid myself that after I finish my MSc I can get back to writing each week... I'm not really sure this will happen but I can give it a go.

I haven't actually been at Paradise Park for the past two Sundays (and may yet be going up to Manchester this weekend) as I was up in the lovely Lake District, so I thought I'd do something a little different.

Last week, I visited the South Lakes Wild Animal Park in Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria. It's a really great little zoo with a large variety of animals. What's really nice about it is the openness of it. A number of the animals are simply roaming around, so you really are with the animals as you enter each section of the zoo. For example, one large open area found emus on the walkways, kangaroos and wallabies sitting in the nearby shade and lemurs absolutely everywhere!

Here is mum with the penguins

It's also a very interactive zoo. During the giraffe and lemur feeding time talks you actually get to help feed the animals. I didn't actually do this myself, there were too many people around that I decided I'd give it a miss, but it's pretty amazing if you haven't got to do it before.

I took loads and loads of photographs, some of which are here:

White rhinos - They have about 5 or so in total including a youngster.

They've also had lots of breeding success with their lemurs and primates. Here are just a couple of the babies:

In one of the South America enclosures, you found squirrel monkeys, tapirs and Andean bears all in together.

And of course they also had their share of cats, including this cute little tiger cub and jaguars.

I had a thoroughly good day and I certainly would recommend it for a visit if you're ever in the area. My parents went in the winter, when admission is free (they just ask for a donation).

I'll leave you with a couple of final pictures, the first of a cotton topped tamarin (there is no zoom on this photo which shows just how close you can get to the animals) and finally one of a black and white ruffed lemur, who for me stole the show after a couple of close encounters. I even adopted one (only £10!) for the year.

ZooBorns

So I'm behind on my blog again, no surprise there. Still, I blame my MSc (well it must be good for something). As I'm settling down in the office to a day's work on the badger project, I thought it best to appease my fans with this website I found:

ZooBorns

So I'm probably a bit slow on the uptake as they've published books and everything, but if you don't already know it, they publish pictures of cute baby zoo animals like this one.

They also have an android app so you can look at cute pictures at any time (guaranteed to brighten even the darkest of days).

Reptiles and primates - An interesting combo

I had a lovely day at the zoo on Sunday. I worked on the primate and reptile sections, which was great since they're still very new to me and I always enjoy doing this I haven't done before. I started the day by cleaning out the squirrel monkeys, which I described to you last time.

I also got to spend time in the reptile house. I got to 'supervise' as the head keeper got one of the snakes out of the back to show the public (there is a rule that the snakes should only be handled with two keepers present). Suzie is an albino Burmese python; she is very large for an albino but not yet fully grown.

Once Suzie was put away, Steve got out one of the smaller snakes for me to hold – My first real snake holding experience, aside from the tiny green snake that some of you will remember in Nova Scotia. He also took the time to tell me about some of the snakes and turtles they have there.

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Back to primates, we also spent a good part of the morning giving the indoor gibbon enclosures a thorough clean. They're hoping that one of the gibbons is pregnant which would be fantastic for the keepers and the zoo. The tests have come back inconclusive so far, so fingers crossed.

Just before lunch, I got to feed Mr Jingles. I have a real soft spot for sloths so Mr Jingles is definitely a favourite of mine, and I love being able to hand feed him. I could reach him too so that was an improvement on last time. ;-)

To top off a great day with the primates, we spent some time in with the black and white lemurs. It’s always really special to spend some time with the animals and this was no exception. Although I wasn’t particularly sure about the lemurs climbing down my back where I couldn’t see them, it was great being able to make a fuss of them; I even got some licks from one of the males.

Obviously, this is not a picture of black and white lemurs; but here are a couple of ring-tails during the Feed a lemur experience. 

Then finally, the new tiger arrived. Narnia, the white tiger was moved down to the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Kent and has been replaced with Indy. They're hoping that Indy will get on better with Rocky, the male tiger and that they'll be able to share an enclosure. Rocky and Narnia had to be kept separated as they didn't get along.

A number of keepers, including myself had to help carry the moving crate into the separation enclosure so that she could be released. She went straight indoors so I couldn’t get a proper look at her, but hopefully I’ll have time for a visit now that she has settled in a bit.

Facts of the Week

Two-toed Sloths (Choloepus hoffmanni)

•  The sloth is the world's slowest animal. So slow, that algae can grow it's fur. This provides camoflage.
• They spend most of their time hanging from trees, even when sleeping (which they do for 15-20 hours a day).
• They are usually nocturnal, feeding at night.
• They are very good swimmers.
• While two-toed sloths can survive well in captivity, three-toed sloths can not.

Visitors to Birds of Paradise

I little late with my blog post again but better late than never :-)

Last week I was really pleased to be on the bird section of the zoo. I haven't been on birds for ages and I always enjoy working on the section.

I started off by going to the Toucan House (which really needs to be renamed as it only contains one toucan these days. I think I introduced you to the toucan the last time I was on the section. This time, not only did I get to clean out her enclosure, but I also hand fed her some grapes.

Despite reassurances that they had settled down somewhat, I refused to go into the enclosure with the sun conures; after being attacked twice now, I have no desire to get bitten again. Instead, I cleaned out the bats which I thought was much more fun ;-) I was warned that they will urinate on you, but I got in and out no problem at all, much to my relief.

The rest of the morning (and part of the afternoon) was more or less spent making up the foods. Although I do quite enjoy it, it does take a long time and by the end, I must confess I do get a little bored of cutting up apples. I also got to watch a bit of one of the shows - This is Stella, an eagle owl who was found living wild on an estate (living off the local cat population!).

In the afternoon, one of the other volunteers and I got to go and feed the penguins, who took this opportunity to all go for a swim (and they never go in the water). This makes feeding difficult, as we're not supposed to throw the fish in the water (in case they don't get eaten), however we stuck to putting them in the shallow part of the pool where we could easily get them out again.

At the end of the day, some visitors were brought to the Birds of Paradise section. The head primate/reptile keeper, thought it would be a nice idea to bring his new giant tortoises out of quarantine for the first time to enjoy a bit of sunshine and the fresh grass. The male tortoise wandered off almost immediately and happily set about eating the grass, the female was less sure and after a lot of sitting there, looking decidedly nervous anytime anyone went near her, she eventually headed towards a nearby tree.

 'Lancelot'*

 'Guinevere'*

*They don't actually have names yet, but one of the other volunteers and I came up with these two - The reptile keeper was less impressed. ;-)

The tortoises are about 12 and a half years old and were apparently living in someones garden until they got too big and were given to the zoo. As you can see from the photos they're already quite big but are expected to become a third bigger in size before they are full grown.

So here is my blog post for the day, I've finally got the photos up which go with the post. I wonder what section I'll be on tomorrow...

Chantil is fundraising for Earthwatch

Now that my trip is booked and definitely happening, the time has come to start plugging my JustGiving page. I still have to finalise the exact details of my fundraising challenge (and find some more people to join the challenge).

The aim: To raise funs for the Earthwatch koala conservation project in Australia which I'll be volunteering on in September.

The challenge: I'm hopefully going to be taking part in the Lake District 3000 - Climbing the 4 peaks in the Lake District over 3000ft over 2 days.

When: Dates still to be confirmed.

Where do I donate: Chantil Sinclair is fundraising for Earthwatch

Earthwatch is a charity which is very important to me. They help fund scientific research into conservation and enviromental issues such as climate change. I highly appreciate all of your donations.

Many Thanks.

An apology

It has been brought to my attention that I may have inadvertently upset some of the keepers at the zoo by including their names and photographs in my blog. I am terribly sorry if I have caused offence to anyone as this certainly wasn’t my intention.

This blog does not have a large audience; it is merely aimed at keeping my friends from around the world updated on what I get up to during my time volunteering and to tell them a bit about the zoo itself and the animals they have here.

I am however upset that no one felt they could speak to me directly about the content of my blog as if they had, they would know that I am more than happy to change or remove anything as appropriate if I know where the problems lie.

Two weeks for the price of one

Sorry for the lack of blog post last week, I blame lack of sleep, holiday plan chaos and generally just being busy. I’m going to attempt to cover the highlights of both weeks in this single post.

Last Sunday I was on the farmyard section. The first part of the morning was spent on cleaning out the chickens, chipmunks and rabbits:

While the rest of it was spent helping out over at The Studio, where we cleaned out the animals as well as mopping the floor and cleaning the windows, quarantine and finally we finished by cleaning out the skunks.

This is a picture of the inside of The Studio, it’s a VIP area of the zoo, closed to the general public but it’s quite nice in that it has pictures of the celebrities who have visited the park up on the wall.

The skunks were probably the main highlight of the day, although I have never had any issues with them before, the white skunk decided that he obviously didn’t like me and tried spraying me. Because of this, I quickly retreated and got to cuddle the other skunk, while one of the keepers quickly finished off the enclosure.

My afternoon was spent mostly with the rabbits. I had been asked to arrange the wooden logs and stones in the rabbit enclosures so that they looked nice and so that had things to hop onto and to get a few more bits and pieces for then. Below is a picture of one of the rabbits investigating one of the new pieces of wood I got from the woodland (this particular rabbit also got a brand new stone which she hopped on straight away - the rest, didn't seem particularly interested).

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Today, I was on Paddocks. The day started like any other paddocks day. The morning is always very hectic getting all the enclosures clean. After break, myself and one of the other volunteers went to clean out the wallabies, much to my delight, as it doesn’t take much to get me thinking about my impending trip to Australia! (Do you think this excitement will wear off, or am I going to be like this right from now until September?)

We then went up to the Woodland Walk to clear away some of the leaves inside the deer enclosure. I wish I had taken a ‘before’ picture, but this was ‘after’. With help from the keepers, we got quite a lot of it cleared away and it was looking very different by the time we left it to go to lunch.

The day just flew by! In the afternoon, we cleaned out Dippy’s room (Dippy is a wallaby who has been hand raised and can’t be put in with the others, therefore he has his own room next to the vet room), cleaned the outdoor area of the emus and fed the tapirs.

You may remember way back when I posted a picture of Thiago, the baby tapir. Well he is a bit bigger now and has lost his stripes. Here is a picture of him (front) and his mother having their evening feed.

This week’s facts, in order to be topical, are on our Australian residents at the zoo, the wallabies. I would do koala facts but perhaps I ought to wait until just before I actually go on my volunteer trip for those. ;-)

Facts of the Week

Wallabies

·         There are about 30 different wallaby species which are subgrouped by the habitat they live in: shrub wallabies, rock wallabies etc.

·         Although usually fairly small, they can measure up to 6ft from head to tail.

·         They have strong powerful back legs to help them move around; while there arms are used primarily for feeding and sometimes to help balance.

·         Their tails can measure the same length as their body and is used for balance.

Monkeying Around

On Sunday, I was a little worried about which section of the zoo I’d be put on. After my mess up with the cat medication, I had every belief that I would be punished by being relegated to the farmyard or perhaps be put back on birds. It’s not that I would have minded being on either of these sections, but I have enjoyed being on different things recently. So when I found myself on primates – believed to be the hardest section for volunteers to get themselves onto, I was delighted, although a little worried about what the day would hold.

Last time I was on primates, Steve, the head keeper was called away and I spend most of my time cleaning windows – A fact which I did not neglect to mention to Glen who was in charge of the section for the day. It wasn’t that I wanted to make a big deal out of it; I just wanted to let him know that I hadn’t really been on the section before.

I spent most of the day with Tori, one of the other keepers on the section who set herself on a mission to ensure that I got to do really fun things.

My first task of the day was to clean out the indoor spider monkey enclosure; I have to admit this was a really unpleasant task. A woman at work once told a story about her twins managing to remove their nappies overnight and then used the contents as finger paints; I was reminded of this story while cleaning this enclosure. After a lot of scrubbing, I finally got it clean, much to my relief, I then spent a bit of time hiding pieces of mushroom around the place for them to find later.

The squirrel monkeys didn’t want to stay still long enough for a photo, this is about as good as I got, but they were pretty cute as they tried to steal the mushrooms out of the bowl through the bars. I then went to help Tori finish cleaning out the lemurs.

After break, I was set up doing the feeds. It took a long time to chop up the numerous bowls of fruit and veg but I never really mind doing this, although it does get a bit tiring chopping up your 20th apple of the day…

The highlight of my day was feeding the animals. First, we went and fed the ring-tailed lemurs, some of whom are pictured here. Out of all the food I had prepared for them, it turns out that lemurs (or the ones at Paradise at least) love grapes and I absolutely loved the chance to hand feed them. One of them opted to sit in the food bowl and steal the grapes out of it, another sat on my shoulder. While a third tried to pull him off again by his tail! They really were quite comical to watch.

Later I got to feed another lemur, a black lemur this time, who also enjoyed the grapes and sat on my shoulder; he often disappeared outside to eat them though; presumably just in case I decided to take them back.

The final animal I got to feed was the one I was hoping I’d be able to all day and that was Mr Jingles. Mr Jingles is the resident two toed sloth who lives in the rainforest section of the zoo. Tori very kindly fed all the monkeys, giving me time to try and hand feed him. Unfortunately, as you can hopefully see from the picture (the nature of his enclosure means it’s really difficult to get good photos) he was really comfortable and wasn’t going to help much by moving. Standing on tip-toes, I did manage to get him to eat a few things from my hand much to my delight. I should explain here that I absolutely adore sloths and I’ve been dying to feed him ever since I started volunteering at the zoo. An absolute delight.

To finish off the day, Tori and I cleaned out the indoor gibbon enclosure. They have 4 white-cheeked gibbons, which Tori absolutely adores. I can see why, they’re very entertaining to watch and full of character. I have a fair few gibbon photos now; this is probably my favourite of them all:

Facts of the Week

Ring-Tailed Lemurs (Lemur catta)

• Ring-tailed lemurs are native to Madagascar.
• They live in 'troops' of between 6 and 30 individuals, with one dominant female who will eat first.
• Ring-tailed lemurs are unique from other lemurs in that they prefer walking on the ground to swinging through trees.

Kush the snow leopard

I was going to spend this evening writing about my day at the zoo yesterday, but instead I once again have to share some very sad news.

I didn't post in my blog last week, I didn't work at the zoo since I had thought I might stay over night in Oxford. That didn't happen so I actually did end up at the zoo on Sunday afternoon with mum and dad. I asked after Kush, and Jenny said that she didn't look good but that she was having a scan on the Monday.

Yesterday I didn't ask after Kush and I didn't go down to her enclosure to see how she was - I think deep down I already knew the answer.

On the zoo's facebook page this morning, they announced the devastating news that Kush was put to sleep on Monday after she was found to have severe liver cancer. My thoughts are with Jenny and all the other cat keepers.

I leave this post with a picture of Kush (top), taken last Sunday and one of Aron her mate (bottom) who is doubtlessly feeling her absence too.

Another day working on cats

I had another week working on the cat section yesterday – With a working camera I’m pleased to say!

I thought I’d start my blog with this picture of Yazhi. I didn’t get to go into the enclosure with her today but I did say hello to her through the bars.

I’m going to start at the end of the day and tell you all what I complete idiot I was yesterday. I’d had a really great day and then I managed to ruin it in a complete moment of madness.

Kush, the female snow leopard is currently ill and so she’s on antibiotics. Martin, who was running the section for the day gave me some meat with the medication hidden inside to go and give to her. Somehow, and I still do not know how I possibly confused them, I managed to give it to Aaron by mistake instead.

What more or less happened was that Aaron was outside, so I unlocked the indoor enclosure to see if Kush was there and there was a snow leopard in there. Without really thinking about it, I just assumed it was Kush, but of course Aaron had somehow seen me and sneaked inside. There is no real excuse for it however, it’s really obvious which is which and I should have double checked with myself before giving the meds.

I feel really, really bad about it. I spoke to Jenny this morning on the phone and went over what had happened. She was quite nice about it all and told me that both Kush and Aaron are fine, but of course it could easily have been a lot worse.

Here’s an old picture of Aaron that I’m sure I’ve posted before:

Back to the beginning of the day now, my first task was to clean the white lions’ indoor enclosure (which is next to Yazhi’s). The indoor enclosures are quite easy to do. I thought I’d give you an illustrated guide on how to clean a cat enclosure:

Step 1 – Sort through the old straw crating two piles, one of dry straw, the other of wet straw. This sounds simple, but sometimes it’s actually quite difficult to tell what is damp and what isn’t.

Step 2 – Bag up the damp straw – This is then thrown away in the general waste – Unlike most of the waste from the animals, the rubbish from the cats cannot be put on the compost heap due to the high levels of ammonia.

Step 3 – Empty the old water from the trough over the floor of the enclosure and then squeegee it off to give it a clean.

Step 4 – Finally get some new straw to replace what you have removed, and arrange it to form a nice bed.

As you can see from the photo, the three white lions don’t have anything else in the enclosure with them but this depends on the cat. Many of the enclosures have split level platforms, and the jaguars have things to climb on as well to keep them occupied.

I also got to do a couple of ‘firsts’ – I got to watch Tom do the ‘Feed a Big Cat’ Experience which was something I hadn’t seen before. I was quite jealous to watch the chap feed Rocky and Narnia the two tigers.

I also got to do a couple of the feeds – This only involved throwing large chunks of meat over the fences to the cheetahs and white lions, but still, I was thrilled to be able to do it and now just clean out enclosures for one.

This is one of the beautiful white lions just before he was fed:

Facts of the Week

Snow Leopards

• Snow leopards are found in the mountain ranges of South and Central Asia
• There are estimated to be between 3,500 to 7,000 left in the wild.
• Their long, powerful hind legs enable them to jump up to 30 feet – approximately 6 times their own body length.
• Snow leopards sometimes wrap their thick furry tails around their face and body to keep warm while resting.

Cat Day!!!

As mentioned yesterday, I worked on the cat section at the zoo this week and I have to say I had a great time doing it.

The day started with a disaster – My camera battery was dead! It seems to last for ages and then suddenly dies without warning. So I had to rely on my trusty 5 mega pixel camera phone which has never taken a decent picture in its life! Please forgive me for the poor photo quality this week – I’m just as disappointed as you are.

First job was to clean the outside of the tiger enclosure, this involved picking up any piles of poo and any leftover food. Here is some of yesterday’s dinner – Although this doesn’t include the really gruesome parts of a horse’s head which I had to pick up.

Jenny then decided that they should clean the windows to the cafe which overlooks the enclosure. Fortunately I didn’t have to help; I just got to laugh at Jenny and Tom trying to reach.

 Note Tom standing very unsteadily on the edge of the raised section.

Once we had finished there I went to help Tom, firstly with a bit of sweeping in the snow leopards enclosure, and then with the small cats. 

The first of the ‘small’ cats is Sheena who is a clouded leopard. She arrived not long after I started at the zoo and wasn’t really comfortable around anyone, often jumping up at the glass and hissing. She’s fine now – Except it seems with Tom.

This is Sheena in the enclosure while Tom was gone. She’d checked me out (I was in the other half of her enclosure) and then walked away uninterested.

I can ensure you that as soon as Tom reappeared she was back, hissing and pacing along the fence. In fairness to Tom, we think its men in general she doesn’t like very much. She has come really far during her short time at the zoo and I’m sure soon she’ll be comfortable with most of the keepers.

The other small cats are Billy the ocelot (pictured here) and there is also a Northern Lynx (whose name escapes me). Between us, Tom and I cleaned the enclosure, fluffed up their beds and washed the windows.

After our break, I cleaned the floor of the white lions enclosure, dropping their water trough so that water went everywhere. I attempted to mop it up the best I could but it proved to be difficult. Normally we can just squeegee the water away to the nearest drain but the floors are all uneven so no sooner had I pushed the water out of the enclosure, it went straight back in again; you have to be quick to move the water away – The fact I had to jump over the dividing fence made this impossible. I did the best I could but to be honest that wasn’t really good enough.

Once I had finished there I went to join Tom clean out the inside of the tiger and jaguar enclosures and we also had a couple of outdoor enclosures to clean.

Here is a picture of the platform in the cheetah enclosure which I had to get up onto. It felt like a day in an adventure playground! Trouble was it was really slippery.

By far the best part of the day came at lunchtime. I opted to skip lunch (it was now 2pm by this time) in favour to watch Jenny who was in with Yazhi the puma cub who I pictured when she first arrived, and helped the maintenance guy fix up a temporary water trough in her enclosure.

I was delighted when Jenny said that Tom and I could go in and sit with her for a bit while she was with the vet!  (They’re trying to get her as used to keepers as possible).

To be honest, she didn’t seem that interested in us, she spent most of the time chasing a rugby ball around her enclosure but she would occasionally curl up by my feet for a couple of minutes rest before running off again.

Here are a couple of pictures – note the beautiful pieces of wood holding the water trough on (that was my handy work). The third picture is one that I have posted before when she first arrived.

You can probably tell how much I enjoyed my day by how much I’ve written. It was fantastic to go in with the puma cub and stroke her – Of course we weren’t able to cuddle up with her like Jenny can but it was a real treat.

I’ll end now on Mandy’s request to have a facts of the week section.

FACTS OF THE WEEK

Pumas (also called cougars or mountain lions)

• Pumas can be found across North and South America
• They hold the Guinness book of records, record for the animal with the most names (Having 40 in English alone - cougar, panther, mountain lion and catamount to name just a few)
• Once fully grown they weight about 90 kilos and their body length is about 6ft long.
• They attack by stalking and ambushing their prey, biting the back of their necks.

A really bad day for my camera battery to die.

I was on the cats today and had a great time. Unfortunately, as the title of this post states, my camera battery died on me and I didn't have use  of my camera all day.

I have tried to take photos on my phone so hopefully I'll have something to share with you.

Full details of my day later. :-)

Of emus and camels

Today had one of my rare visits to the paddocks section of the zoo. Some volunteers seem to be put on this a lot, Steven will do 3 or 4 weeks running, I however, hardly ever seem to go on it. In fact, I've probably only done it half a dozen times.

I'm not sure whether I like this section or not, I actually enjoyed it far more today than on previous occasions. I think it might simply because it is very hard, physical work and therefore I always end up exhausted and ready for my breaks.

The morning was spent doing the usual cleaning out of the enclosures with head keeper James and Carrie. We were later joined by Meggie who is one of the volunteers doing their Duke Of Edinburgh award (This is an award done through schools, for which they have to do so many hours volunteer work - at the zoo they tend to work 8 'til 1).

After our break Meggie and I went to clean out the emu pool. This was a challenge, especially as we established that Meggie is frightened of emus and they kept wandering round wondering what we were getting up to. This is not the best photo in the world - It's very blurry but this is two of the emus drinking the water we'd removed out of the pool.

 In the afternoon i got to feed the wallabies - I took a picture of them eating but unfortunately it too was blurry so here is a picture I took back in the summer.

 I also got to go on the woodland walk with Carrie today and got to listen to a few facts about the animals there. I was interested to hear about tawny owls. Apparently, they are the most common owl in Britain and are the only species to make the "Ter wit to wo" noise which we all (in the UK at least) associate with owls. However, it is actually part of their mating call and the females go "Ter wit" and the males answer with "to wo".

As well as owls, there are also deer and some red foxes on the woodland walk. There are two types of deer, red deer, found here in the UK and hog deer (pictures here), found in Southeast Asia. The red foxes at the zoo (one of which is also pictured) have all be rescued. Two of the Basil and Jacob were found at the side of the road at about 4 weeks old shortly after I'd arrived at the park and Rupert, who is about 4 years old was hit by a car and nursed back to health.

Overall it was a good day, I spent a lot of time playing with Houdini, the baby camel and tickled the meerkats whenever I went past their enclosure - They run up to me now, I'm not sure if it's because they recognise me or if they run up to anyone wearing a green top.

I really have a back ache now though...