Send me you cutest animal / wildlife pictures.

I would love to see some of your animal / wildlife pictures. You can E-mail them to me at :

bethrowbottom@aol.com

They could feature on my blog ?

Get snapping ! =]

A day at Twycross Zoo and World Primate Centre.

Last week we spent a day at Twycross Zoo. We saw loads of different animals, it was fun and a great day out !  Twycross contribute to conservation by having over 200 different species, many of which are enrolled in captive breeding programmes. They also have a Conservation Welfare Fund.  This their web page :  http://www.twycrosszoo.org/home.aspx

One of the rarest things we saw was a bird called Monserrat Oriole. Apparently these are the only ones in this country and are critically endangered !

Montserrat orioles are sexually dimorphic (the males and females look different). The males have black wings, tail and breast and their belly, rump and lower back are yellowish. The females are yellowish all along their underside and have dark green/brown wings and a green tail.

They inhabit a small region on the island of Montserrat in the West Indies. These birds live in the forested areas of the island, but much of their habitat was destroyed by volcanic activity during the mid 1990's.

These Orioles eat mostly insects, but are also known to eat fruit and nectar.

Montserrat Orioles breed seasonally, they nest from June until August and the females build hanging basket like nests from plant matter and incubate the eggs. However both parent feed their young. They are monogamous. The parents will continue to feed their young even after they have fledged.

This species has always had an extremely small range, but recent volcanic activity has seriously reduced the size of their habitat and has damaged the forests. The increase in hurricane activity is also damaging their habitats. Predators such as rats are also decreasing the numbers of chicks to fledge.   ( Copied from Twycross site )

The best part of the day was when we went to see the elephants. The elephant enclosure at Twycross has been highly improved since I last went. We spent ages watching an elephant that waded into the water about 4 feet from us and kept diving until it was completely covered by water and then it would pop up again. It did this over and over and was so funny !  See the picture above.

This is the same elephant before it went for a swim .

The Elephants at Twycross are all Asian elephants. Here is a bit more info :

Asian Elephants are much smaller than their African counterparts. They are, on average, 3m (10ft) tall and 6m (25ft) long. The males can weigh up to 5000kg, which is about the same as 62 men! They also have much smaller ears too. African elephants have large rounded ears whereas Asian elephants have smaller squared ears.

The Asian Elephant was once found throughout India and South-east Asia. Now it is restricted to small areas of India, Indo-China, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia and Southern China. In these countries they live in various habitats including tropical rainforest, tropical deciduous forest and mountains.

Asian Elephants are one if the largest herbivorous mammals in the world. In the wild their diet consists mainly of grasses, leaves, trees and shrubs. At Twycross Zoo there are fed cabbage, bread, apples, bananas, carrots, leaves and a manufactured dry food to make sure they get all their vitamins.

Female elephants and their offspring are very social and live in 'herds'. Each herd has a 'matriarchs', a mature female leads the group. The 'matriarch' will lead the group to the best places to feed and drink and so passing on her knowledge to the nest generation. Males usually wander solitarily only meeting with the females to mate.

Asian elephants breed, on average, seven times during their lifetime at intervals of between 4 and 6 years. After mating the female is pregnant for 20 - 22 months (almost 2 years). The calf will then suckle for up to 3 years (up to 5 years in captivity). If it is a female then it will remain in the group for its lifetime.

Twycross is probably most well know for its chimpanzees. The PG tips chimps from the old adverts came from there and my Mum says they used to have a chimps tea party. Now they are kept more natural and have indoor and outdoor enclosures.

We saw so many animals it would take all day to list them but I have to add a pic of the penguines, they were hilarious !

And the Otters who were the biggest attention seekers of the day :D

                                       This is my cutest picture of the vist 

Twycross Zoo is well worth a visit there is so much to see.

OPAL bug survey

Yesterday I did the OPAL bug survey in my Nana's garden. Me and my little brother did 3 x 15 minute surveys finding bugs on soft ground,  hard surfaces and plants. It was fascinating ! We found slugs, snails, worms, bees, various flies and beetles, woodlice, earwigs and centipedes. We used our book to identify a large group of tiny beetles on 1 plant and found out they were carpet beetles . Here is the link if you want to take part :  http://www.opalexplorenature.org/

The Opal survey also counts toward my Wildlife Action Awards :o)

This is a picture of a carpet beetle

Latin name: Anthrenus verbasci

Size: Between 3 and 5mms long

Distribution: Found throughout the UK

Months seen: March to October

Food: The adult beetles feed on nectar and pollen. The larvae feed on dry materials and dead insects. They have been known to reduce museum collections to piles of dust.

Habitat: Woods, parks, gardens and sometimes inside houses.

Special features: The adult beetles sometimes appear on walls and window sills in spring and early summer. The patterns can vary, but they mostly feature a zig-zag of light and dark colouration.

The females like to fly inside houses to lay their eggs. There can be up to 100 eggs, and when they hatch, the young feed on woolen clothing and carpets, especially soiled materials.

The larvae of these beetles are commonly called 'wooly bears' on account of their bristly haired appearance.

Info borrowed from  http://www.uksafari.com

Wildlife Action Awards

Over the next few months I am going to take part in the RSPB Wildlife Action Awards. There are 3 certificates to do, bronze, silver and gold. I will need to do 6 activities from their list for each award and it includes things like making a wildlife pond, pond dipping, identifying wild flowers, providing homes for wildlife etc. I really want to help wildlife and learn about different things by doing the awards and would like as many people as possible to join in to. If you would like to do them too follow this link :  http://www.rspb.org.uk/youth/makeanddo/do/actionawards/index.aspx  and click on ' How to take part ' on the left hand side  :o)

Today I made a bird box and a bug house at Butterflies Home Education Group. It was a bit stressful because it kept falling apart but I really pleased with them now they are finished ! If you would like to make a bird or bug house for your garden there is a pattern here :    http://www.rspb.org.uk/youth/makeanddo/activities/smallnestbox/index.aspx
http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/projects/insects-bug-box/

And don't forget it counts toward your Wildlife Action Awards !

Sunday I found a Lime Hawk Moth !

Lime Hawk Moth on my Mums finger

Yesterday at my Nana's my little brother just missed treading on a moth on the floor. It was the strangest moth I have ever seen so I photographed it and then googled what it was. It is a Lime hawk moth !

The Lime Hawk Moth has a wing span of 20 - 80mm. The males and females vary in colour with males being pink to olive green and females, pink to reddish brown. It is characterised by blotches or a band of olive green across the forewings. This band of colour in combination with the forward  position of the  hindwings when resting,  disrupt the typical  outline  of the moth, that  predators of moths look for when they are hunting their prey.

The Lime Hawk Moth flies from May to July and in the day can be found resting on walls and trees .  Caterpillars of the Lime Hawkmoth  feed on limes, elms, birches and Alder,  and have a slightly  curved bluish horn at the tail end.  They are active from June to September and you might spot full-grown caterpillars crawling down tree trunks in parks and on city  limes when they go  in search  of a pupation  site.  At this stage  the body changes in colour  from yellowish-green to  a dull purplish colour.   The Lime Hawk-moth

overwinters as a pupa, usually buried just below the  ground, close to the foodplant.  

Learn more about Butterflies and Moths here :  http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/

Derbyshire Bat Conservation Group

On Friday I went on a bat walk at Albert village with Derbyshire Bat Conservation Group.

They gave me a bat monitor that made a different sound with every type of bat. There are 17 species of bat in Britain 11 of these have been found in Derbyshire. Here is the link to the group http://www.derbyshirebats.org.uk/

We only saw a few bats, but we saw GLOW WORMS !!!!! I didn't think they were in this country they were a really bright green.

DID YOU KNOW :

Female glow worms glow to attract a mate. Once they have mated and laid their eggs they die. If they don't find a mate they die from exhaustion from creating the glow. The male glow worms can fly to find their mate. 

My week as a volunteer Ranger

Last week I spent some time at Conkers in Leicestershire UK helping the Rangers.  I mostly helped out with children's butterfly craft workshops but also did some litter picking ( which is a really important part of the Rangers job), pond dipping and came into contact with a variety of wildlife including newts which I had never seen before. I also had the chance to meet the Head Rangers Owls, A Barn Owl called Misty and a Little Owl called Al who is very moody.
All the Rangers were really helpful and I learned a lot from them. I am hoping that they will let me go back again to do some wildlife surveys and a puppet workshop soon.

This is the Conkers website http://www.visitconkers.com/
You can also follow the blog of Gerry the Head Ranger at http://theranger.posterous.com/

                                          Me and Rosalee preparing the crafts