Wildwood Newsletter - November

Wildwood Newsletter - November 2018

Winter opening times   The clocks recently went back an hour and it's now getting dark early in the woods. To try to cut-down on the chances of people bumping into trees, we are now adopting our winter hours of 10am to 4pm (last entry at 3pm). Opening hours will change once again as soon as we get our daylight back!

Bear torpor   Before being rescued from an abandoned breeding facility in Bulgaria, the bears had never hibernated. After a lot of hard work and behavioural therapy from our keeper team, our bears are successfully entering torpor for the third year in a row! Although we won't see them much until spring, we're delighted that they are acting naturally and following regular annual behavioural patterns.

Harvest mouse survey   Wildwood Trust is working in collaboration with the Kent Mammal Group on a project to find out the current distribution of the Harvest Mouse (Micromys minutus) across the county of Kent. The species is thought to be declining, but without an up-to-date survey of their distribution it is difficult to know its true conservation status. If you are interested in helping us reach our goal of surveying the whole of Kent for Harvest Mice you can attend one of the free “Harvest Mouse Ecology and Surveying” courses at Wildwood (and at other locations around Kent) that will give you all the background and field skills required to go out and survey your local area for Harvest Mice. The next survey season has just begun, just go to our courses page to see when the next training day is happening or contact harvestmouse@wildwoodtrust.org for more information.   Book a 'Harvest Mouse Surveying' course

Lynx enclosure   Our team of rangers have been hard at work building a new enclosure for our lynx, Cara and Shria. It's already looking great and should be ready by the end of November. We can't wait to welcome Cara and Shria into their new home.

Christmas Tombola   The Wildwood Christmas Tombola is back! Thanks to the generosity of some of our suppliers (Aurora World, Wild Republic, Indigo, Ark Toys and Gifted Wholesale we thank you!) we are able to offer our biggest and best tombola ever! At just £2 per ticket, with everyone a winner, do not miss the chance to have a go when you pass through the Wildwood shop. With over 50 beautiful soft toys up for grabs, as well as other awesome prizes, this is something not to be missed out on the run up to the festive period.

Christmas Courses   Our popular Wildwood nature courses are now available for the Autumn/Winter period, including two courses which will give you the skills to create your own products, perfect for giving that special Christmas gift. Why not try your hand in Wildwood's Natural Skincare Lab on Sunday 25th November or get creative at our Festive Willow Wreaths course on Saturday 1st December. To book and find out more, visit our shop: https://wildwoodtrust.shop/collections/conservation-courses

Wildwood Trust now offer a FREE online will service!   With our partner makeawillonline.co.uk, we offer a free online wills service where you can make a single will or a pair of wills in three easy steps. All wills are checked by a will-writer and covered by £2m insurance. Find out more at https://wildwoodtrust.org/wildwood-kent/how-you-can-help/legacy

Twilight Teas & Santa's Grotto   We've just started building probably the best Santa's Grotto that we have ever planned at Wildwood and we're taking bookings for selected dates, which you can see on our website at https://wildwoodtrust.org/wildwood-kent/things-do/christmas-grotto We're also offering Twilight Teas for just two dates (21st and 22nd of December), where you can enjoy the magic of our Grotto in the dark. Find out more at the address above. For more details, email help@wildwoodtrust.org or phone 01227 209621

The race is on to save baby dormice before it's too late!   We urgently need your support to rescue these vulnerable babies from their tragic struggle for survival and to help prevent the extinction of the hazel dormouse in Britain. Donate today to give them a future - https://wildwoodtrust.org/baby-dormouse-rescue

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FOLLOW US Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewildwoodtrust Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildwoodTrust Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/thewildwoodtrust   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.

Wildwood Trust Herne Common Herne Bay Kent CT6 7LQ Registered Charity No: 1093702 Wildwood Kent: 01227 712 111 Wildwood Devon: 01404 822 188 info@wildwoodtrust.org