Hello and welcome to the first episode of the turtle files in 2026! I know you’ve all been avidly waiting for the thrill that is learning about the turtles of the Reptile House, so let us dive straight in! One of, if not the most peculiarly popular turtles in the reptile house is the Chinese…
In October 2025 we welcomed the infamous Haggis the pygmy hippo to Wingham Wildlife Park. As she is currently off show on the new side of the park, I thought I’d give you all an update on how she is getting on. Now first I want to give some of you a bit of background…
Happy New Year, I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year. As we go into the New Year, many of us like to set ourselves new challenges or goals. Instead of asking my team what New Year’s resolutions they have, we thought we’d do something a little different and set some resolutions…
As this is my last blog for 2025, I’ve decided to have a look back at some of this year’s highlights and changes that have happened over the past 12 months, here at Wingham Wildlife Park. January What a way to kick start 2025 as we welcomed 2 servals to the collection, Maggie and Michael….
I imagine most people think of Christmas Day as being filled with sleeping in, opening presents and settling down to a big family meal. As head of section on the bird team, when I picture Christmas, it’s probably not the traditional activities that fill my mind first, but of the animals in our care here at…
In this blog I will be discussing what goes into training big cats for voluntary blood draws, a procedure in which the cat is trained to allow a sample of blood to be taken, usually from the tail, whilst fully conscious. These samples are taken to check for a variety of markers that indicate the…
For the last reptile/invert blog of the year, I thought we could give a little highlight to probably one of the most popular snakes kept in captivity and as pets: the corn snake (Pantherophis guttatus). With their inquisitive nature, relatively small size and the variety of colours available it is hardly a surprise that these…
Since I was little, I always dreamed of working with the giraffe. Just like most zookeepers, I was lucky enough to interact with these magnificent animals during experiences at zoos and watch them run across the savannah out in Africa. It’s hard not to fall in love with them. There’s something so awe-inspiring about being…
As a zookeeper, you are rarely alone when working. There is almost always either another keeper with you or an animal watching your every move. Today I wanted to shine a light on how important teamwork is not only to us keepers but also in the animal kingdom too! The primate section is a team…
This week my blog is all about our amazing volunteers that we have working at the park. They are part of the keeping team here and it is important to us keepers to make them feel like they are as well. So, I’d just like to say a massive thank you to all the current/previous…
