MR MACAWBER'S DIARY

April 2008

Dear Diary Friends

Hope you had a great Easter Holiday!  Did you visit us?  We had lots of snow over the Easter weekend :)

Our good news is that the Geoffroy's marmosents have triplets!  It's really important when such a vulnerable species breeds, so we are thrilled.  All three babies are doing very well, and mum and dad take it in turns to look after them and carry them around.

At the end of last month, we had a visit from Anglia News, who came in to visit the otters and their babies.  It was a really cold day, and our otter family were a little camera shy.  They still made it onto the TV, though!

This month, we have reintroduced our tortoise feed encounter, so if you like our giant Salcatas, you can see them being fed at 10.30 every morning.  Towards the end of the month, we are celebrating half term with extra encounters and focusing on our spring babies - there are lots of them!  And on Saturday 31 May, I am getting together with my other parrot friends for our 'Pirate and Parrots' event, which means that the zoo keepers and our young visitors get dressed up in their pirate gear and have a lovely time following the pirate trail, walking the plank and meeting some of my parrot friends - and, of course, meeting me, Mr Macawber!

See you soon!

Lots of love

Mr Macawber

March 2008

 

Dear Diary Friends

We bet that you are really looking forward to breaking up for Easter. It's not long now and the Tropical Wings team and animals would love to see you during the holidays.

For a start, we've got so many new additions. The joeys (baby wallabies) are getting quite big now. They are still in their mum's pouch (just!) and very soon they will be making their first steps outside. Then we have our Egyptian fruit bats. They gave birth to six babies, and everyone loves them. If you look carefully, you will see that they are still clinging to their mums.

Any day now, there will be new lemurs and meerkats on the scene. Kiely (the ring-tailed lemur) and Kalahari, (the meerkat) are looking very heavy. Their keepers, Fiona, Katie and Hannah, are watching them closely to make sure they are comfortable and safe.

The ravens are nesting too, with their new brood due in April, so keep a check on the diary then!

I've been watching the Wild Wings Display this weekend (2.30 every Saturday and Sunday), and it's 'WOW!'. My parrot friends are quite jealous of the all attention the birds of prey have been getting. They've been trying to outdo them during their parrot display (every day at 1pm). I know which one I prefer, after all, I am a parrot - what's your favourite? Let me know by mailing me at Ask Mr Macawber.

During Easter, we'll have a special Easter Egg trail, Easter Quiz and Eggtastic Games, so keep an eye open and we hope to see you very soon…

Lots of love Mr Macawber

 

February 2008 

 

Dear Diary Friends,

Well with Half Term just around the corner we’re busy getting ready to see you all again. We’ve got lots of exciting new projects going on this year including a new hide that is currently being created to let you see into the nests of our Lemurs, Ravens, Kookaburras and Little Owls. During their breeding season you won’t be able to see what’s going on in their nest boxes so we’re going to put tiny cameras inside so that you can watch what’s happening on the TV screens in the hide. It’ll be great to be able to see chicks hatching and feeding and to have an inside look at the Lemur bedroom. We’re hopefully going to have this ready for you for Half Term.

Our Bird Team are busy putting together a new Wild Wings Show that will be ready for Easter Weekend. We’re going to be showing you what some of the birds do in the wild and it’s going to be really exciting so I’m not going to spoilt it for you by telling you all about, you’ll have to come down and watch at Easter!

We’ve collected donations all year for the International Otter Survival Fund and we are pleased to say that we’ve collected £426.97 during 2007 so thank you to everyone that donated and we hope you continue to help them during 2008.

Well I have to go now as there’s still a lot to do and I’ll be sure to see you at Half Term.

See you all soon,

Love Mr Macawber

   

 
Davide and Napoleon working on their new display

 

 

January 2008

Dear Diary Friends,

Happy New Year! I hope you had a most enjoyable Christmas and did you make a New Year’s resolution? You did? Well don’t tell anyone what it is or it won’t come true!

Those of you that visited us over the Christmas holidays will know that at this time of year the best place to be is the Tropical House – it’s just so cosy and warm in there. King of the Pond, Jaws, our biggest koi (did you know he is only 7 and a half years old and already weighs approximately 30lb!) prefers the temperature at a nice 27 degrees all year round.

We’ve already got free-flying sunbirds and a hummingbird in the Tropical House and recently we’ve introduced some more free-flying birds and it’s just great to wander around and watch them. We’ve got brightly coloured orange and yellow canaries and they’re absolutely fascinating and very beautiful. We’ve also now got some Weavers that are a bright vivid yellow and black. The RSPCA got in contact with us and wanted us to re-home them. They get their name because of their elaborately woven nests and they are very quick so you’ll have to be quiet and patient if you want to get close.

Our albino skunk has settled in quite nicely and we’ve named her Fifi. We’re giving our skunk family a nice quiet area away from everyone at the moment as we’re hoping that they will breed this year.

See you all soon

Love Mr Macawber