Wildwood Trust: December Newsletter

View in your browser

December Newsletter

Top Forest Development

With the help of a generous donation of £49,739 from 'Viridor Credits Environmental Company', supported by further donations from visitors and members, Wildwood Kent is now able to begin a dream project that will pave the way for a truly wild UK woodland.

In collaboration with Kent Wildlife Trust, Wildwood Kent is developing an innovative new wilding project to monitor the effects of reintroducing formerly native big grazers such as bison and wild boar to a large area of woodland in the Blean, next to Wildwood Kent.

To enable the project we are transforming a large area of our Kent wildlife park, in particular the area containing our boar, bison and Konik horses. This transformation will enhance the standards of our conservation work and improve the park's woodland habitats. It will also provide better access for education groups and researchers to learn about our ancient woodland.

This transformation of our top forest area will be hugely beneficial for our woodland and animals, but we will have to close parts of the park over winter. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience.

Our lynx family is growing!

This October, two beautiful lynx kittens were welcomed from France to their new home at Wildwood, Kent.

The male and female have quickly settled into their new surroundings at our new lynx enclosure next to Cara and Shria, our lynx sisters.

Flo, the Arctic fox

Bard, one of our Arctic fox siblings, moved to Highland Wildlife Park last year. This year, he successfully fathered a litter and we're happy to welcome one of his daughters to Wildwood. Flo has joined her Uncle Teddy and Aunty Lyra in the Arctic fox enclosure. Keep an eye out for her, she's beautiful!

Christmas Grotto

Spaces are booking fast for our Christmas Grotto...don't leave it too late! Dates available can be seen on our website.

Phone us on 01227 209621 to reserve your spot!

Find out more

Christmas Gifts

Looking for the perfect Christmas gift for an animal lover? Why not treat them to a Wildwood animal experience or adoption…

Wildwood are giving participants the exciting opportunity to meet and feed our bears, wolves, lynx and Arctic foxes. Find out more and order now at our shop.

Wildwood animal adoptions last for one year and you can choose from any of the resident animals at Wildwood. There are different levels of adoption available to suit all occasions and budgets. You can order through our secure online Adoptions page, by speaking directly with our shop staff at the park or by phoning us on 01227 712111. Make sure to order soon to guarantee delivery for Christmas.

Many of the animals at Wildwood are either extinct in the UK or under threat. All proceeds from experiences and adoptions go directly towards preserving our native wildlife.

Find out more

South Hoath Wood

Wildwood would like to give a huge thank you to all of our amazing supporters and members for helping us to reach our target of £23,000 to complete the purchase of South Hoath Wood! This means we can now ensure the woodland and rare wildlife that depends on this habitat for survival, will be protected forevermore.

Rewilding Courses

Across Europe the move to rewild – to restore natural ecosystems using natural processes (animals) - is gathering momentum. Therefore as part of our conservation course programme we will be running a series of rewilding workshops examining the pros and cons of bringing back large herbivores and carnivores to modern Britain. The first of which begins on Saturday 30th November and is entitled: Rewilding 1: Big Grazers for Big Landscapes and looks at the large herbivores which kick start landscape changes to benefit biodiversity, including primitive horses and bison. The second course will be held on January 25th and will be entitled Bringing Back the Beaver, looking at the vital role of the beaver in reinstating wetlands and enhancing biodiversity.

Both of these have proved extremely popular are now fully booked. However, we will be running courses on both lynx and wolves early next year, so please look out for them when our spring course programme comes out in January.

Unicorn Adoptions

Our magical limited edition Unicorn Adoption Packs are now available. Donna Langridge, a local artist, has kindly donated this beautiful plaque to be displayed at the area rumoured to be best for viewing our unicorns.

She has worked with us previously, creating the stunning large wolf prints in the wolf viewing platform, and being a true unicorn believer herself wanted to help others to support our work.

Buy now

Farewell to Dora the dormouse

This month, we said goodbye to quite a Wildwood character. Dora the hazel dormouse came to Wildwood in 2010, as a rescued orphan, and reached an impressive age of 9 years and 7 weeks - a remarkably long life for a dormouse.

As with many Wildwood dormice she was originally intended to become part of our breeding programme, to ensure the future of these magnificent little creatures.

However, it soon became clear that Dora had more talents, as well as a big personality. She was exceptionally calm when handled and so became a regular at Wildwood's education courses, teaching more than 200 people about the hazel dormouse throughout the years, and participating in a number of research projects to help us understand more about dormouse behaviour.

Dora had a good and safe life at Wildwood, we are missing her already!

Hello to Sid the dormouse

Although Dora has moved on, we're fortunate enough to welcome a plucky new dormouse to Wildwood. Sid was recently found in a nest box in Cossington Woods alongside three siblings. Sid and his siblings were found in a very bad way, and unfortunately he was the only survivor. Much like Dora, Sid is exceptionally calm when handled, and will likely take over Dora's duties as our Educational Dormouse. He's already appeared on Sky and BBC recently!

Park closed on Weds, 4th December

We're improving our electrical systems at the moment and will be closing the park on Wednesday 4th December to upgrade the infrastructure. We will be back open on Thursday 5th December. Thank you for your understanding.

Great news for Wildcats

Over the next six years, Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) will lead the Saving Wildcats project which will build on the work of the Scottish Wildcat Action partnership, supported by a recently secured £3.2 million EU LIFE grant.

Wildwood is an active participant in the conservation breeding project for wildcats and our kittens will shortly be moving to new homes for breeding purposes. We're extremely proud to be involved in this fantastic project!