northern helmeted curassow
14th of November 2014 – Species Spotlight Masked Plover
A short blog this week as I have had the week off Whilst I have been away we have seen the arrival of this weeks spotlight subject Masked Plover Vanellus miles Also known as the Masked Lapwing and Spur Winged Plover, they are native to Australia & New...
15th of August 2014 – Species Spotlight Crowned Plover
This week we are highlighting a species that have bred successfully for us over the years and who hatched 3 chicks earlier this week Crowned Plover Vanellus coronatus Also known as the Crowned Lapwing, they are a member of a subfamily of Lapwing that also includes Masked &...
1st of August, 2014 – Species Spotlight – Spectacled Owl
This coming Monday see us celebrate International Owl Awareness Day so it feels only fitting to blog about an Owl species this week Spectacled Owl Pulsatrix perspicillata Spectacled Owls are a large, nocturnal species of Owl native to much of Central & South America. The frequent areas of tropical...
20th of June 2014 Species Spotlight – Striated Caracara
This week we take a look at our only Bird of Prey in the park Striated Caracara Phalcoboenus australis With only 500 breeding pairs in the wild, the Striated Caracara is one of our rarest inhabitants and they are listed as near threatened. In the past they were heavily...
13th of June 2014, Species Spotlight – Azure Wing Magpie
This week we highlight a species who fledged 2 chicks Azure Wing Magpie Cyanopica cyana There are 2 distant sub species of the Azure Wing, with one population (the one we keep) found in China, Japan & Korea, and the other located in Spain and Portugal. They inhabit...
Species Spotlight – Humboldt Penguin
The weekend past saw us celebrating Penguin Awareness Day. The day itself was on Monday (the 20th) but we made a full weekend of it, with lots of facts and pictures going online and quizzes and hands on events at the park. On Facebook alone, some of Spikes posts reached...
Week 33 – In the Headlines again
Wow, what a week. This week we have had local, national and even international exposure with the story that Missy, one of our King Penguins, could well be the oldest penguin in the world today. This all started when I saw a zoo in Denmark claiming to have the worlds...
Week 25 – Hand Rearing Update
We continue on from last weeks blog on hand rearing. All the chicks are doing well, with the Military Macaw chick now tipping the scales at 110 grams (having hatched at 25). As the chick is getting bigger it is getting less feeds per day but larger quantities are given...
Week 24 – Chick Chick, Hooray
It's been a good week this week as several of the eggs that the birds and ourselves were incubating have hatched. This means that the staff are busy hand rearing and bags can be seen under eyes! The first of the eggs to hatch since the last blog was...
