Tuesday 14 September 2010

news of new arrivals!

Wow, I'd been away 3 weeks and everything has moved round! The first thing I saw was that the goats are now where the sheep lived; the sheep are in the wallabies' old pen, and the wallabies are where the goats were.
The guinea pigs have moved into the grassy rabbit pen, and the lovely Mara has moved in with the rabbits. I think he/she is still getting used to them. I didn't realise, but the Mara squeaks just like a guinea pig! I think it is my new favourite...
We have some new arrivals! 8 rhea chicks are now where the guinea pigs used to be. They are of various sizes but will all grow to be 5 foot tall. From South America, the rhea americana eats fruit, seeds, small insects. It is a flightless bird, like an emu or ostrich, and has no tail feathers, and 3 toes on each foot. I had the enjoyable task of cleaning out their bedding, replacing the sawdust, and then spot-cleaning the enclosure. The rheas can run really fast and they were very amusing. One would pick up a stick and run really fast to the other end of the pen. Then another one would chase after it and grab the stick off it. Then I was cleaning outside the pen, sweeping the whole area, and cleaning the glass. When I was taking the soap suds off with the squeegee, the rheas were really interested, and were standing behind the glass looking at me, following the squeegee along with their heads!
In addition to that, I checked the hoofed mammals' water and replenished their hay, with Charlotte and Rosie. It is a shame, but hay and straw really do make me sneeze. In the afternoon Cath, Kate and I did the squirrels enclosure, (food, water, cleaning) and all four squirrels were darting around. They really are very appealing and such a nice colour.
We also did the pheasant and parrot enclosure - food, water and spot-cleaning. Kate was on pheasant duty with a broom, as they can attack you if you're not looking. Cath had an enviable spot next to the parrot dish - some beautiful coloured parrots were flying very close to her and picking the nuts out, to crunch. They also have a mixture of fresh fruit, seed etc.
Cath and I spot-cleaned the tortoise enclosure (they didn't seem to mind), and swept round the monkeys and the mammal house (the monkeys were very interested. I had aching shoulders the next day: you can tell I am getting some exercise).
There are 2 baby meerkats! It is nice to see the animals breeding as it means they must be happy with their environment. The baby meerkats are tiny and have little squashed faces. There was also a new sugar glider waiting to have a companion to live with; it had been donated by one of the public.

Big Excitement!
Cath and I were going to put the rabbits and mara to bed, and it was just about 5pm, so everyone had left. We were walking past the beaver, saying it was hardly ever out, when lo and behold, I realised that the beaver was in the corner of the enclosure, near us! He/she is quite a large mammal, like a small dog, with an  appealing face, and sleek brown fur. The tail is large and thick and dark, and you could see a scaly pattern on it. We were very excited. The beaver turned round, ambled over to the water, and dived in. It then had a leisurely swim up and down, and looked quite content. It was really lovely to see it swimming, and we realised it must prefer to be out of the public eye. It shares the enclosure with a ne ne (hawaiian goose), many of which you can see at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetland trust.

I was very pleased to be back, and although there seemed to be lots of volunteers this weekend, it was still very nice to see some familiar faces (human and animal).
Photos to follow.