Hi everyone. As this is my last blog of the year, I thought it would be very fitting to do something a little different to my normal write ups. I have decided to do a festive one this year. It’s Christmas after all. That’s right, you heard me. 2024 has absolutely flown by. I hope it has been a great year for you and wishing you all the happiness for 2025. Without further ado, welcome to Team Mammal’s Naughty and Nice List.
After spending nearly 10 years at Wingham and currently looking after 100 residents on the section. I have spent a lot of time getting to know them all on an individual level. As with people, our animals fluctuate between being cheeky and having their loving moments to get what they want. This has made it incredibly difficult to decide who belongs on what list. Especially when speaking to people about my job, I always get ‘well at least the animals don’t answer back’ and my reply is, that some actually do.
As loved as they all are, we obviously can’t write about everybody, so here are some of my most popular choices.
Let’s start with the Nice List
Maximus is one of our male Visayan warty pigs. He’s 11 years old and will be 12 on 30th December. He’s a firm favourite on the mammal section and we believe he deserves a rightful spot on the nice list. Max is like a giant dog. He loves attention and is very needy. He comes every time we call him over and excels in his positive reinforcement training. He allows us to touch his tusks, trim them down when they’re getting too long and even pick up all of his hooves to check for lumps, bumps and stones. We also think he’s a good boy just for the hair, look at that mohawk.
Paul is our male African crested porcupine. At a whopping 17 years old, he’s your typical old man. He definitely deserves to be on the nice list for his calm and kind nature. He likes to sleep for most of the day and causes no trouble at all. He’s also your typical family man. Very loyal to his wife Paula and a great dad to daughter Pauline. Even at his age and with cataracts, he enjoys life to the full.
Most of you know Mai as she’s a very popular resident at the zoo but for those who don’t, she’s our female Red Panda. Mai is currently 11 years old and will turn 12 on 20th June. We have included her on the list due to her gentleness and queen energy. If any of you have done our red panda experience, you would have seen this for yourself. She’s the best girl and always puts a smile on the keepers faces. She knows what she wants in life, a pink lady apple out of all of the apple varieties and loves to have a wash after every feed. We wouldn’t change her.
Stumpy – One of our female parma wallabies. She’s 2 years old and will turn 3 in March. From birth, Stumpy has only had one arm. Us keepers love her positive attitude and determination. She lets nothing stop her and is probably our friendliest wallaby. You go girl.
Robin – The greediest giraffe there ever was. Most would probably put him on the naughty list due to this but being food orientated has worked in his favour. Robin is fantastic for coming over for our giraffe experiences and talks. He’s also excelling in his husbandry training and much more advanced than his brother Ruedi and the other two giraffes. Nice work, Robin.
Now for the Naughty List
Reggie – Another famous resident at Wingham. He’s our 6 year old male deer who a lot of people mistake for a female due to him not having any antlers. Reggie has been placed on the naughty list due to this personality being inconsistent. One minute, he’s a soppy boy who loves fuss and follows us around everywhere, the next, he’s enjoying nibbling keepers and members of the public. In other words, hangry. He also likes to eat my blonde hair; I assume it looks like hay… cheers mate.
Henry – Please don’t let his size and cuteness fool you. Henry has us keepers and the other giraffes wrapped around his finger. He regularly uses his size and cuteness to get what he wants. He’s also a terrible listener when we are talking to him and gets very impatient.
Juniper and Delilah, the goats. I have decided to group these two together as they’re just as bad as each other. Goats do tend to have a bad reputation, and these girls are helping to prove that. Both turn 3 in March so we definitely can’t say that they’re just young anymore. Delilah is very fond of climbing on wheelbarrows and pushing them over so that our hay goes everywhere. Whereas Juniper loves to jump up at keepers and give them a cheeky nudge. They’re also ring leaders, allowing the keepers to get mobbed when food is present.
Ken – our 10 year old dominant male Meerkat. Definitely uses his age to pull a fast one. Every time we do crate training with our meerkats, Ken conveniently decides to sit on his platform and pretend he’s looking out for predators.
Marie – Believe it or not, is our male Capybara. We originally named the Capybara’s after South American Rivers and had been told we had four girls. Due to being the only male in the group, Marie is the boss and enjoys eating the majority of the food and doesn’t always like his girlfriends eating with him. We may move him to the nice list if we can have some baby capybaras next year?
As fun as this has been. We love all of our animals here at the park unconditionally. They will all be receiving presents no matter how cheeky or good they have been. If you want to donate to our animals this year, we have a donation box located in reception where you first come in. Here you can leave dog toys, cat toys, yummy treats such as honey, peanut butter, unwanted perfumes etc. The mammals will appreciate that and every little helps. You can also buy an experience to come and meet some of our naughty and nice mammals for yourself.
