Take a nature walk

 

Go for a Nature Walk. If you have children or grandchildren take them with you and share the fun of appreciating nature.

Did you try today’s activity? Please tell us by commenting below, emailing education@isleofwightzoo.com or sending us a message via Facebook or Twitter. We’d love to see some pictures, too!

Watch the birds

Practice for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch (see http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch for details) by watching the birds in your garden or park for an hour. Use a bird book to help you identify the species that you see.

 

Did you try today’s activity? Please tell us by commenting below, emailing education@isleofwightzoo.com or sending us a message via Facebook or Twitter. We’d love to see some pictures, too!

Light a candle

Take a stand a stand against climate change and support the largest environmental event in history by signing up to WWF’s annual ‘Earth Hour’ event – see www.earthhour.org for more information. You could even practise and get into the Christmas mood at the same time by switching off all your lights for an hour and relaxing by candlelight.

Did you try today’s activity? Please tell us by commenting below, emailing education@isleofwightzoo.com or sending us a message via Facebook or Twitter. We’d love to see some pictures, too!

Make a Christmas wreath

Make a Christmas wreath for the birds and hang it in the garden or on the balcony.

 

 

Making one couldn’t be simpler;

• Thread monkey nuts onto a length of flexible garden wire.
• Bend the wire into a circle and twist the ends together, leaving one end slightly longer - make this into a loop from which to hang the wreath.
• Using raffia or kitchen string tie a small bunch of seed heads (e.g. teasel) and/or berries to the top of the wreath.
• Hang the wreath somewhere safe from cats.

Did you try today’s activity? Please tell us by commenting below, emailing education@isleofwightzoo.com or sending us a message via Facebook or Twitter. We’d love to see some pictures, too!

Advent calendar

Don't miss our Advent Calendar with a difference! If you are, like us, a little fed up with the materialistic onslaught on the senses that characterises the run up to Christmas here is an antidote to restore some seasonal joy. Every day from 1st December until Christmas Eve we will be suggesting something that you can do to connect with nature.

Endangered Babies and Camera Divers

This was a great week for the Isle of Wight Zoo, as we welcomed six new babies!

Our Meller's ducks are a species that are only found in Madagascar. At first glance they might look like normal Mallard ducks, and many people pass them by without even noticing them. However, they are in fact a separate species. The giveaway signs are the different shape of the beak, and that the males are also brown (in normal Mallard ducks the males are brightly coloured) .

Sadly, it took so long for scientists to confirm that they were a separate species that they had become Endangered, and it is only recently that they have been allocated a breeding programme. We are thrilled to be a part of it, and we are very excited about this latest success.

The perils of taking a photograph at the zoo, however, is that there’s always someone else looking for attention. In this case it was the black-and-white ruffed lemurs, who wanted to know what all the commotion was about. They were fairly certain that I should have been looking at them instead of the boring ducks!

Marmoset News!

One of the marmosets

At the end of March we were pleased to welcome two common marmosets to the Isle of Wight Zoo. Common marmosets are a very small New World monkey, found wild in South America.

We welcomed one male and one female, who came to us as a pair from a zoo that was closing. The female marmoset used to live in an animal testing laboratory in Scotland. When it was closed down she was rescued by a rehoming service who found her a new home in the zoo world. She has been living with the male for a few months now, and we are hopeful that they may breed.

The Marmosets arrive in their new home

They have been quarantined inside for the last month while our vet has checked out their health. However, soon it will be time for them to come outside, so our maintenance team have been working on their enclosure. They still have to put on the roof, then knock a hole through the wall in the marmosets' bedroom so they can come outside. We're hoping that the rain holds off while they work!

Our Maintenance Team build the marmosets an enclosure

In the meantime our visitors can see the marmosets through the viewing window in their bedroom, which is next to the black lemur bedroom.