This month we celebrated World Penguin Day by creating some unique keepsakes with the help of our Penguins for our fundraising stall. The keepers, along with our Conservation Co-ordinator, came up with the idea of creating individual footprints in frames and personalised photo badges for visitors to be able to take away a meaningful token of their visit to the Park.
Our Meet the Penguin sign was particularly popular with children as they enjoyed spotting the coloured bands on the wings then coming back to stall to identify who it was, with some managing to correctly identify breeding pairs as well.
We are always so grateful to our visitors for their support with our conservation projects and their generosity when it comes to helping species thrive. The Spehnisco charity works to support wild Humboldt Penguins across Chile, Peru and Europe by protecting breeding colonies. You can read more about the charity’s work here.
Now that the temperatures outside have been much warmer, this means that our Giant Tortoises can be out and about enjoying their outdoor enclosure once again. We have three male Aldabra Giant Tortoises here at the Park – George, Sheldon and Darwin – who have a collective age of almost 200 years old.
George the Giant Tortoise
Darwin the Giant Tortoise
When outside, you will often find them soaking up the heat from the patio at the side of their house, seeking out the weeds in the ha-ha ditch or munching on grass by the fence. Darwin in particular loves to sunbathe on the patio and block the door to the house and the keeper gate!
The Giant Tortoises will be off show from May for several weeks whilst the enclosure undergoes some renovations. If you are visiting in May, you can still view our other species of tortoises in the courtyard and Reptile House.
Our colony of Straw Coloured Fruit Bats have recently moved from next door to the Siamang family into the main Bat House alongside the Seba’s Short Tailed Bats.
Both species are fruit-eaters and so you will often see fruit kebabs strategically placed around the enclosure where the Bats can easily land and feed from them. You will sometimes see them crawling along the ropes in the enclosure, using the claws at the end of their wings to grip on or flying around finding a suitable place to roost.
As a nocturnal species, the red light inside their enclosure allows us to view them during the day, then at night the lights change and brighter yellow lights simulate daylight for the Bats to aid with their circadian rhythm.
DID YOU KNOW?
The wingspan of a Straw Coloured Fruit Bat can reach 3 feet!
EXTRA EXTRA!
We will be celebrating World Binturong Day in May so please keep an eye out for the fundraising stall next to the Binturong enclosure on Saturday 10th May. You will have the chance to donate to the ABConservation fund by purchasing some Binturong goodies and chatting to keepers about these amazing creatures! You can read more about the conservation project that the Park supports here.
*Reminder*: Summer opening times so please may we remind you that the Park is open daily from 10.00am and our closing time is 6:00pm, with last admission at 4:00pm – thank you.