Wildwood Trust: Pumpkins providing enrichment and nutrition to British wildlife

Pumpkins providing enrichment and nutrition to British wildlife

Situated on the A291 between Herne Bay and Canterbury, a popular Kent wildlife park and charity has found a novel way of providing enrichment to its native British animals over Halloween. The Wildwood Trust runs an annual pumpkin carving competition for its visitors, with the best designer winning the exclusive opportunity to see some of the spooky entries being fed to the animals.

* Click on the image below to see a video of a Wildwood bear enjoying his pumpkin treat.

Last year Kate Hayton scooped the prize with her amazing scuplture. Kate and her family spent a wonderful day with the keepers at Wildwood where she fed a number of pumpkins to the boar, lynx, bison, ravens and bears. Aside from the enrichment pumpkins give to animals, the fruit is better known for its nutritional benefits. The flesh is rich in fibre, vitamin C and potassium. The seeds are full of omega 3 fatty acids which are documented as being good for maintaining healthy skin, boosting the immune system and preventing inflammation.

This year's pumpkin carving competition runs from Saturday 21st October, with the winner being picked on Sunday 29th October. The pumpkins which remain in edible condition will then be fed to the animals over the next few days. To enter, just hand your carved creations over to staff at the main entrance (make sure that you include a name and contact details on a piece of paper inside the pumpkin). All entries will be displayed in the park over the half-term period.

The Wildwood Trust also has plenty of other spooky shenanigans to get involved with during the Halloween half-term including craft events, a FREE trail, spooky talks, fancy dress and a medievil weekend. Find out more at https://wildwoodtrust.org/things-do/halloween

Halloween at Wildwood

Wildwood Trust, Herne Common, Herne Bay, Nr Canterbury, Kent CT6 7LQ

Registered Charity No. 1093702

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ABOUT WILDWOOD

Wildwood Trust opened in 1999 as a centre of excellence for the conservation of British wildlife, and was established as a registered charity in 2002. Wildwood is Kent's best British wildlife park. Home to over 200 native animals, past and present and set in 40 acres of beautiful ancient woodland where visitors can see bears, wolves, bison, deer, owls, foxes, red squirrels, wild boar, lynx, wild horses, badgers and beavers plus many more. As one of the leading British animal conservation charities in the UK, Wildwood Trust is dedicated to saving Britain's most threatened wildlife. Wildwood Trust have taken part in many ground-breaking conservation programmes to date, which include, saving the water vole, using wild horses to help restore Kent's most precious nature reserves, bringing the extinct European beaver back to Britain and returning the hazel dormouse & red squirrel to areas where they have been made extinct.