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Our second visit to the British Wildlife Centre exactly one year on from our first visit. Callum’s choice for a day out so he must have enjoyed the place to want to bring his best friend along.
Entry fees were £10.50 for an adult and £8.50 for a child. We had lunch there – a sandwich, packet of crisps and a drink each came to £12 for the three of us. Travel wise, if roads are clear it should take about 90 minutes (although that is M3/M4 and M25 dependant!!).
A lot of the animals housed here are rescued or injured animals that have been rehabilited. Some are too used to human interaction to be released back into the wild. Every half hour, there is a talk about one of the animals at the BWC – we missed the Red Squirrel chat as this takes place at 10.30am.
Our first port of call was to the Red Squirrel Enclosure – apart from Brownsea Island and the Isle of Wight, there are no Red Squirrels in the wild in the South of England (only Scotland and the very North of England). They were quite quiet so we headed around to the small mammals.
Callum and his friend just loved watching the weasel and the stoats whilst I spent time watching the snakes. There were plenty of other animals to see. We were lucky enough to see a badger and a pine martin too.
There was an adder out and quite a few pros trying to capture Gerald – the Grass Snake. However, as it was half term there were alot of families there – and as snakes tend to disappear at any noise, it doesn’t help when the kids shout, scream and kick the enclosure walls (and yes, some of the adults were as bad!). The best time to see the snakes is when the talks are on as a lot tend to listen to these talks – not the badger talk in the late afternoon though as this is right next to the snake enclosure!
Eventually, Gerald did appear – I’d never seen a grass snake before and his colouring was pretty stunning.
The best chance of seeing the otters is during the otter talk so we made sure we listened to this one. Only Elwood came to see the keeper; Emmie was staying out of sight.
The deer enclosure (massive field!) was shared between Red and Roe Deer. One stag was in the river/mud pool when we arrived, rolling in the mud and bashing its antlers on the ground. We then left there and started chasing the other deer around the field. Part of the rutting season?
We headed back to the Squirrel Enclosure several times during our visit and the squirrels were getting more active as the day moved on. Muntjack deer roam in this enclosure too – we have plenty of the deer roaming free in the countryside around our home town so it was good to see them close up.
