New Forest Wildlife Park The New Forest Otter, Owl & Wildlife Park

Made another visit today. Butterfly House now closed for the winter, and the fox cubs Moss and Bramble have settled in well (and grown alot!) Bramble tends to stay underground but did emerge in the evening, meaning Moss is the more active of the two, and most dominant; they're thinking of giving him the snip to calm him down, though I reminded the keeper not to tell it to his face. ;) Saw one of the mink out and active today unusually, just as the keeper came to feed by placing the chick on the top of the enclosure and letting the mink climb up and get it, where it would then store it in the nestbox. Apparentley they can't feed them too many because of this, otherwise a store of rotting old chicks is what they see when they go to clean it out. The otters were all very active, including lots of greetings from the Canadian and Short-Clawed Otters as I rounded the corner to their pens, and the pine martens and wildcats were also very active. The sika deer are currently off-show to lose the weight they built up on in the Summer, and there are now only two snowy owls. The wild boar were very entertaining, with the youngsters beginning to agitate their massive father! The wolves are now expected to arrive by January, and apparentley they've been contacting local villages to tell them that if they hear any strange howls at night, that's where they're coming from!
 
Zambar said:
placing the chick on the top of the enclosure and letting the mink climb up and get it, where it would then store it in the nestbox. Apparentley they can't feed them too many because of this, otherwise a store of rotting old chicks is what they see when they go to clean it out.
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That means the Mink are fed way too much. They should be hungry and eat the chick immediately- 'caching' food is a sign of too much being offered. Bad practise.
 
Pertinax said:
That means the Mink are fed way too much. They should be hungry and eat the chick immediately- 'caching' food is a sign of too much being offered. Bad practise.
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Not entirely true. Having worked with ferrets, mink, stoats, weasels, martens and polecats, I can tell you that some individuals will cache food upon being fed, only to come back and eat once it is all hidden.
 
tetrapod said:
Not entirely true. Having worked with ferrets, mink, stoats, weasels, martens and polecats, I can tell you that some individuals will cache food upon being fed, only to come back and eat once it is all hidden.
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I know caching is typical behaviour for these species and appetite in captivity is never likely to be as sharp as in the wild.. However, if there is a danger of rotting food it indicates to me that too much is being given.
 
I know of a collection with Mink that feed them dry Ferret food. this would be a good idea as they would eat them at the dish.
 
Vulpes said:
I know of a collection with Mink that feed them dry Ferret food. this would be a good idea as they would eat them at the dish.
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Though widely used nowadays for Ferrets, I'm not sure how good those dry concentrated foods really are for Mustelids generally? They don't give them any roughage or chewing exercise for their teeth etc.
 
Nutritionally id say much more balanced than feeding day old chicks! I think American collections in particular are moving towards feeding specialist dry diets. On fur farms Mink are fed a mulch of tripe, fish, fish oil, beef, and boiled barley. This diet produces the most luxurious coats so it would be presumed it is also very nutritional. (Im not advocating fur farms here in case anybody starts)
 
Vulpes said:
On fur farms Mink are fed a mulch of tripe, fish, fish oil, beef, and boiled barley. This diet produces the most luxurious coats so it would be presumed it is also very nutritional.
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Yes, I'd forgotten Mink on fur farms are fed on a sort of 'chum' diet. It was the dry concentrate foods I was referring to though, probably very nutritional but not very natural.
 
The way the keeper fed the mink was also more enriching than putting a bowl in front of it: He placed it on the roof of the cage then let the mink climb up the mesh and try and grab it. There is a picture of it doing this in the gallery.
 
That is good, It always amazes me how arboreal this species are. Ive seen them from a distance scampering up and down mesh head first and they one would be forgiven for thinking they were squirrels!
 
Vulpes said:
, It always amazes me how arboreal this species are. Ive seen them from a distance scampering up and down mesh head first and they one would be forgiven for thinking they were squirrels!
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I've seen them hunted with Hounds and 'treed' as a result.
 
Vulpes said:
Nutritionally id say much more balanced than feeding day old chicks! I think American collections in particular are moving towards feeding specialist dry diets. On fur farms Mink are fed a mulch of tripe, fish, fish oil, beef, and boiled barley. This diet produces the most luxurious coats so it would be presumed it is also very nutritional. (Im not advocating fur farms here in case anybody starts)
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American zoos do tend to feed alot of animals on commercial nutitionally-balanced diets. While it is understandable why they do it, a common complaint is that there is no stimulation or variation with the diet and it also lacks the texture of real food. I know of some primates from American zoos that have arrived with appalling teeth having lived on 'canned' diets.

I prefer to see a good balance between nutritionally-balanced foods with real fruit/veg/meat.
 
tetrapod said:
a common complaint is that there is no stimulation or variation with the diet and it also lacks the texture of real food. I know of some primates from American zoos that have arrived with appalling teeth having lived on 'canned' diets.
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That's why I don't like to see animals like Ferrets being fed just on pelleted food(and a lot are nowadays)-they allow no proper use of teeth to chew fur, bones, blood etc and no roughage. Similarly primates need to chew fibre from fruit, vegetables and foliage, none of which are catered for with commercial foods, though in the case of primates they're usually just a component of the diet which isn't so bad.
 
Vulpes said:
Nutritionally id say much more balanced than feeding day old chicks! I think American collections in particular are moving towards feeding specialist dry diets.
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Nutritionally and behaviourally it is much better to feed whole foods/carcass as opposed to commercial diets. Day old chicks are sources of Iron, Zinc, and Vitamins A, B1, and E (just for you Sun my source is Zootrition(R) ), as well as seeming to be very palatable and providing needed roughage and enrichment. However they can be quite fattening and generally collections which feed whole foods vary the type; rats, quail, rabbits, chicks, mice, fish, etc. creating varied and balanced diets. Just like Pertinax and tetrapod said nothing can compare to a "natural" diet for keeping teeth clean and allowing individuals to express most natural behaviour.

As for American collections leaning toward the commercial diet, I have been told that this is because the public would be upset by the sight of a Carnivore tucking into something with eyes. I find it very amusing that the American public demand large immersive naturalistic enclosures but are appalled by the fact that animals eat other animals. I question the educational value of a jaguar in a beautiful jungle exhibit tucking daily into supplemented mincemeat or gutted and plucked turkeys. Yes the public are educated about the habitat of the cat, but think he gets his food from Walmart.
 
Visited with lots of snow still around today, and what a great time to visit! The otters and wildcats seemed to love it, but the wild boar thought it better to stay in the hut and Bramble and Moss the foxes preferred to stay underground in the warm all day!
All the mesh on the fences of the new wolf enclosure is now up, and the next thing they need to do is finish the overhang. I was talking to a keeper, who said that the guy designing the enclosure slipped on some ice and broke his leg, so work may be slightly delayed. However, the wolves, which will be coming from Colchester, are still expected to arrive in March, in time for the park's rebranding at Easter into just the New Forest Wildlife Park. This is due to the increasing number of British Wildlife in the collection making the title 'Otter & Owl' misleading.
 
Sounds great did you get any pics of the new wolf exhibit? Are they getting timber wolves? i thought they would have got europeans considering that they mainly concentrate on natives
 
Yep, there are three pics of the wolf enclosure in the gallery along with another from today's visit coming up. The sign says it is european wolves in keeping with the theme.
 
Zambar said:
Yep, there are three pics of the wolf enclosure in the gallery along with another from today's visit coming up. The sign says it is european wolves in keeping with the theme.
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Well they cannot be European Wolves if they are coming from Colchester!
 
Interesting. So it's either confusion on the keeper's part of where they're being sourced or the park lying to make them try to fit in!
 
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