Wildwood's March 2019 Newsletter

Wildwood Newsletter - March 2019

The Bears Are Back In Town!   After their third successful torpor, our bears are waking up for spring! The bears have been kept in their smaller enclosure during the winter so that our keepers can monitor their progress during torpor, and we're pleased to announce that they will soon be ready to be let back into their large enclosure. One lucky visitor will get the chance to release the bears into their expansive woodland home at 11.30am on Saturday 30th March. All paying visitors and Wildwood members entering the park before 11.00am on the day will be given a free raffle ticket. The winning ticket will be drawn and announced at the bear enclosure at 11.20am, and the winner will be invited to pull the sliding doors and release the bears! Our bear bridge will also be opening for the summer, which gives wonderful views over the whole of their enclosure. We can't wait to have our bears back...see you all there!

Easter Holidays: 6th - 22nd April   Spring is in the air, new life is blossoming at Wildwood and we're gearing up for Easter holidays. We have plenty of activities to entertain adults and children over the egg-citing two week period, including free talks, feeds, activities and a FREE 'Find the Egg' trail with a draw for some great prizes. We also have our menagerie of British wildlife from past and present, a new red squirrel walkthrough, a kiosk for tasty snacks and beverages, our bears out of hibernation and our egg-xtraordinary playpark - all wrapped up in 40 acres of ancient woodland. We can't wait to see you this Easter!   Find out more about Easter at Wildwood

Summer Opening Times   Now that the daylight hours are getting longer, Wildwood is changing its opening hours for visitors to its park in Kent. From Saturday 30th March the park will be open from 10am to 6pm, with last entry at 4.30pm. Make a note in your diary!

Red Squirrel Walkthrough   Wildwood is constantly building new exhibits to expand the park for the benefit of our animals and to give visitors new experiences with wildlife. We have just replaced our old Wallaby Walkthrough with a huge Red Squirrel Walkthrough which is on course to be open for the Easter holidays. Stretching from the otter pond all the way up to the horse paddock, visitors can walk along a meandering raised walkway and interact with this incredible acrobatic animal.

Mother's Day Mug Offer   On Mother's Day this Sunday 31st March, we're giving away a special mug with every purchase over £20 in our shop...whilst stocks last! Just visit our shop, buy some of our fantastic value goodies, and get your FREE mug.

Wildwood Watch   A new way to look at your favourite woodland discovery park. As well as our fantastic display collection, the natural woodland setting of Wildwood supports a host of free-living wildlife. Did you know, for instance, that over 60 species of wild birds are regularly seen at Wildwood? A dozen types of wild mammals live in the woods or pass through on a regular basis; there are four kinds of cool reptiles and all sorts of invertebrates, including over 20 beautiful butterflies. In addition, there are wonderful woodland wild flowers, a diversity of native trees and an assortment of fascinating fungi. Throughout the year we shall be keeping an eye on them all, with nestbox and bird feeder cameras, guided nature walks and trails, talks and events that will link you to the changes to wild, wild Wildwood throughout the seasons. As you walk around the park, looking at our captive collection you can look out for Wildwood’s wild things for yourselves – from woodpeckers to wood mice, from teasels to weasels, from treecreepers to trees – and add them to our sightings board.

Bear Experiences 2019   Our bear experiences for 2019 are now available to book online. We'll be starting in April and running until the end of September, with extra afternoon sessions from May onwards. Wildwood Bear Experiences are a unique opportunity to meet and learn all about Wildwood's two rescued bears with exclusive behind the scenes access. Walk through the bears' large enclosure to scatter a feed, before meeting the bears and giving them a treat in their smaller enclosure. Then let them out into their large enclosure, where they will sniff out and hunt down the scattered food.   Click here to book now

Our New Scottish Wildcat   Say hello to Findlay, our new male Scottish wildcat. He is recently arrived at Wildwood and will be part of a breeding pair in the Scottish wildcat enclosure nearest the rat barn. He has quite the cattitude, but is settling in well and isn't anywhere near as grumpy as he looks!

Conservation Courses   Our popular Wildwood nature courses are still available for our winter/spring period, catering from complete beginners and amateur naturalists through to wildlife professionals. We cover a variety of topics ranging from species ecology, conservation and handling to outdoor crafts. To find out more, visit  https://wildwoodtrust.org/wildwood-kent/conservation/conservation-courses. We'll have our summer courses available soon!   Click here to book now

Picture of the Month

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