Wildwood Discovery Park Wildwood Escot News

I thought I would make a new thread for news concerning the second Wildwood site:

A group of six European wolf pups have arrived from Sweden - no mention has been made as to where they originated from (they were accompanied by a researcher from Stockholm University). Part of the reason for the wolves' arrival is to study the behaviour of wolf pups against domestic dog puppies to see how behaviours changed during the course of domestication.

The wolves are currently in quarantine at the park and are offshow.

wildwoodescot

Wolf cub pack arrives in UK - BBC News

 

I visited yesterday for the first time since it was Escot Aquatic Centre. Lovely place' managed to see everything, enclosures seem well fitted into their woodland setting, nice to walk down a path with Wolves on one side and Wild Boar on the other. Wildcat showing well in a beautifully perched and furnished enclosure. My first Red Squirrel walkthrough!

 

I had my first visit to the park today - certainly worth the trip if you're in the south west!

The Red squirrel walkthrough is fantastic - the squirrels were active and happy to pose for the camera.
The Wolf talk was great, and the enclosure was nice too - lovely woodland setting.
A Red fox has recently arrived from the sister site in Kent - he appears to have settled in well and was very active both before and during the talk.
Managed to see the Lynx and Boar too - no-shows included the Scottish wild cats and the otters.

They seem to have plans to bring in some new species to the site - I'm sure we'll all appreciate that when/if it happens. I shall be uploading some images to the gallery shortly

 

Just noticed that Wildwood Trust are fundraising to build an enclosure for two orphaned European brown bear cubs at the Escot site. The two cubs, called Mish and Lucy, are currently being housed in a temporary rescue facility in Belgium.

More information can be found on the donation page below:
Help save orphaned bear cubs today! | Wildwood Group

 

The bears will initially be bought over to Wildwood (Kent) before going over to Wildwood (Devon), as there is a slight delay in developments of the exhibit they'd be in.

Help us give Mish & Lucy a better future | Wildwood Group Confirmed via this link

 

Brown bear cubs Mish and Lucy have now moved into their new home at Wildwood Escot from the Kent site.

Information comes from the Wildwood Trust's Facebook page.

 

Visited last week, and had a lovely time, we spotted:

2 x arctic fox
6 x boar
1 x lynx
2 x otter
4 x red squirrel
1 x wallaby
1 x wildcat
4 x wolf

The bears were off display in hibernation. A shame there wasn't a camera feed.

Compared to the site in Kent, it's lacking many animals like red & fallow deer, red fox, badger, hedgehog, pine marten, beaver, polecat, water vole and bison. It would be good to see some of these feature at the Devon site as well.

 

@LovingLongleat
Has the bear extension been completed yet?

 

Hedgehogs aren't currently kept at the Kent park either.

 

Are the eagle owl and birds of prey not there any more?

 

I went last year and there was definitely Kites or Buzzards can't remember which in one aviary and an Eagle Owl in another. I do know that when they have Falconry displays it's an outside Falconer who comes in and does them.

There was also two Lynx, and hadn't heard one had died, so don't know if Loving Longleat only saw one, or there was only one.

 

When I was there in 2021, they had a row of around 10 bird of prey aviaries (which I think were the display birds) along a path near the otters.

 

That section has been converted into three aviaries, which I am sure was where the Buzzard/Kites are, or certainly were last year. I think they mentioned another section being created for Snowy Owls as well. The Eagle Owl I think was somewhere near the Bears / Wildcats.

The birds of prey for the displays, are normally just tethered in smaller holdings at the back of that section further along.

 

Thanks
That is where I saw the eagle owl last time, not in the row of cages

 

In December, a pair of red-billed chough arrived at Wildwood Escot from Jersey Zoo. Chicks reared at the park will be part of the reintroduction programme aiming to return the chough to Kent.

More information can be found in the link below:
Rare red-billed choughs move to new Wildwood Devon home | Wildwood Group

 

Some news from August that I have only just noticed - the Devon Environmental Foundation has awarded £10,452 to establish a white-clawed crayfish hatchery at Wildwood Devon. They are already in the first phase of the project, rearing wild-caught egg-bearing females - at the time of writing, they had ten crayfish hatchlings.

More information can be found in the link below:
Why are white-clawed crayfish endangered?

 

Diego the Brown bear has arrived at the Wildwood Trust from Orsa Predator Park for his temporary stay ahead of being moved on to Jimmy’s Farm once his enclosure is built.

Rescued Swedish bear arrives in Devon via Eurostar https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-67307708

 

I wonder if he's the first animal transport via Eurostar...an unusual passenger for them!

 

Many human animals have been transported on Eurostar. I reckon some insects and other animal species have also been transported

 

I had visions of him sitting comfortably in carriage 5, seat J23, but apparently he got a whole carriage to himself.