Wildwood's August Newsletter

Wildwood Newsletter - August 2019

New Red Squirrel babies at Wildwood will support reintroduction project   Wildwood Trust has helped repopulate The Island of Anglesey with red squirrels over the last 15 years. Now as the native reds move to recolonise the mainland, Wildwood is providing more red squirrels to support their expansion and ensure their spread throughout the U.K. This month has seen the birth of three red squirrel babies at Wildwood, some of which will be released into the wild in Wales as soon as they have grown into adulthood. Reversing 100 years of extinction is one of the main charitable goals of Wildwood Trust and the new babies are great news for the future. These new babies, born 3 weeks ago and now venturing out of their nest boxes are Wildwood's first brood this year. When old enough the squirrels will be transported to two sites in Wales to live wild and free, helping the developing wild population to safeguard and expand the species. After recent efforts to reintroduce pine martens by the Vincent Wildlife Trust, it is now hoped the red squirrel can out compete invasive grey squirrels from North America to once again become part of lives, eventually being restored across Southern Britain. Red squirrels went extinct in Kent in the 1960's, but many can still remember them from their childhood when Kent once teemed with these beautiful acrobats of the trees! Visitors to Wildwood are in luck this week with regular sightings of our red squirrels in their large new walk-though enclosure and now is your chance to play a role by adopting one of our squirrels today.

Adopt our Red Squirrels - click here

Watch our Red Squirrel Kits - click here

22nd July – 1st September   Looking for the perfect family day out this summer? Put a smile on everyone's face with a trip to Wildwood. Come and see our wolf pack in their huge woodland enclosure, watch our rescued bears play fighting in their pool and marvel at the acrobatic red squirrels leaping from tree to tree in the new red squirrel walkthrough. Grab a bite to eat at our cafe or bring a picnic as you let your kids run wild in our adventure play park with climbing walls, rope bridges, slides and scary drop slide PLUS we have over 50 species of native British animals from past and present in our 42 acre woodland and plenty of FREE medieval themed activities to keep everyone entertained throughout the summer holidays!   Find out more about summer at Wildwood

Baby Green Lizards   Say hello to our five baby green lizards just born at the park. They're all healthy, tiny and voracious! They are currently not on show to the public while they are growing, but we'll let you know how they are progressing.

Beaver Enclosure Upgrade   Over the coming months, our ranger team will be upgrading the beaver enclosure and the area around it. Plans are to introduce a new walkway surrounding a wetland habitat and we can't wait to get started. The area will be closed while work is being undertaken, but it will be well worth the wait!

Fallow Deer Fawns   Wildwood has recently taken delivery of two adorable fallow deer fawns who will be joining our fallow deer herd. They are currently settling in behind the scenes, but should be viewable in September. Keep an eye out for them!

How To Medicate A Bear   Our Scruff was a little under the weather last week. He's generally a very healthy bear and it's the first time he's been ill for three years, since he first started going into winter torpor.  We had to give him some antibiotics for a few days and did so by adding them to a delicious fruit yoghurt. To retrieve the bowl before he wrecked it, we distracted him with some peanuts. Suffice to say, the bowl is safe and he's got his appetite back, already starting to fill up for this year's winter torpor!

Red Squirrel Walkthrough   Our new Red Squirrel Walkthrough is huge and will eventually contain a number of other species in addition to the red squirrels. Our first residents are these young female mandarin ducks. See if you can spot them on your next visit.

Bear Experiences   Our bear experiences for 2019 are available to book online until the end of September. Due to popular demand and the enrichment provided to the bears, we have introduced extra afternoon sessions. 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

Wolf Experiences   Wildwood Wolf Experiences are a unique opportunity to meet and learn all about Wildwood's family of six European grey wolves with exclusive behind the scenes access. Participants will learn all about this intelligent species before getting up close to our pack and feeding them through the wire of their enclosure.   Click here to book now

Horses On The Move   Three herds of Wildwood's Konik horses have been successfully rounded up, given a health check and moved to pastures new to carry on their conservation grazing. The eleven ponies have settled in to their new surroundings at various locations in the UK and we're excited to see them continue their fantastic conservation grazing work.

Return Of The Red-Billed Chough   Our pair of red-billed chough have successfully reared three youngsters which are now honing their aerial acrobatic skills in the large aviary opposite the otter enclosure. Wildwood is working in collaboration with Kent Wildlife Trust and other conservation partners to return the chough to Kent after an absence of 160 years. We will keep you updated as the project develops!

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