Tilgate Park

14/11/2024

🍂 This 'fall', make sure to look 'up'! 🍁

This time of year is a great time to marvel at the amazing geometric patterns you can see in the trees. Bracnehs twist and turn all around each other to make sure their leaves can reach the sunlight, and as the leaves fall away, you can really appreciate just how large and impressive trees are. The scientific name for leaf-dropping is leaf 'abcission' and it's a very clever process. Just before the leaf on the stem there is a layer of very weak cells compared to those below them. The below cells expand causing the weak cells to break, so the leaf can fall.

📷 Education Officer Richard

13/11/2024

The gundi seem to know it's 'World Kindness Day' and have been coming right up to us to say hello! How friendly! ... Do they think it'll get them more treats, if they show us their cute snoot?
Would it work on you?

📷 Keeper Billie

11/11/2024

Heroes in plain sight.

Often bad-mouthed, maligned or outright ignored, the humble pigeon is not thought of highly in the modern day.
But homing pigeons have been a vital part of human warfare, especially in the world wars. Today, when we remember those who have fallen in past conflicts, we can also remember the animals who fought alongside us.
The Dickin medal, often called the 'animal Victoria Cross', is the highest honour an animal can receive for military service. This may seem rather trivial to many, but without animals such as homing pigeons, history and the modern day would be drastically different.
54 Dickin medals were awarded for service in World War 2 and a colossal 32 of these went to pigeons who carried vital messages from behind enemy lines.

The woodpigeons around the site can serve as a reminder of the sacrifice of the animals of military history, who may come to mind at this time of remembrance.

10/11/2024

👷🏻 *Work underway!*
We would like to make our visitors aware of works taking place along Titmus Drive – the entry road to the park – which will mean closure of the road for a 30m stretch.
This is scheduled to start on 13th November for up to 5 days, although hopefully it will be completed swiftly. The restricted access will be from 08:00 until 16:00.
You can, of course, still visit the park by foot, or by car through the K2 entrance, although please factor in that there may be some delays.

08/11/2024

It is with great sadness that we must inform our followers and visitors that Nutmeg the Shetland pony has passed away at the age of 27. Nutmeg had age-related health issues and despite ongoing veterinary care and plenty of TLC from our keeping team, the difficult decision was made by the keepers and the specialist vets after she started to show signs of further deterioration in relation to these issues.
Nutmeg had been at Tilgate since she was 7 months old and was a firm favourite with visitors and staff alike. Sweet and stubborn, she was a real character who will be greatly missed by all of us. She shared her home with her sister Cinnamon who passed away last July, and our two donkeys Jimmy and Nipper.
During this difficult time for our keepers, we welcome you to share memories and/or pictures with us on this post so we can remember her long life here at Tilgate.
We’ll miss you, Nutmeg.

08/11/2024

🍁 An autumn armadillo! 🍂

Look at how much Milo fits in with the aesthetic of the season!
Such lovely colours! He's been enjoying the smells of the leaves - for an animal with such a good sense of smell, it's a perfumed playground!
How are you enjoying the late autumn colours?

📷 Education Officer Richard

07/11/2024

Did you spot her?

Our African dormice are very nervous creatures, but if you look really closely, you might spot some whiskers twitching or see a big fluffy tail!
They are sometimes called 'microsquirrels' and we think that suits them very well!
See if you can spy them in the Discovery Room.

📷 Education Officer Richard

06/11/2024

"Would Sir like to see a dessert menu?" "No, I'll just have the 'bill' thanks!"

Jack the African grey hornbill has a wonderful bill, as you can see in this photo sent in to us!
He needs a strong beak for his very varied diet, including chomping on lots of bugs with tough exoskeletons to break through!
Hornbills actually have fused vertebra in their necks to support these large bills, which is something special to their group, as similar-looking birds, such as toucans, lack this.
Whilst hornbills and toucans are very similar, they actually evolved their large beaks independently (a process known as convergent evolution).
Eat up Jack! Your bill can handle it!

📷 Public submission

05/11/2024

Halloween is over... It's beginning to look a lot like Chr...

New for 2024 at Tilgate Park’s Magical Christmas – Storytime with Santa!

This year, Tilgate Park’s Magical Christmas is thrilled to bring you a brand-new experience: Storytime with Santa!

Gather around in Santa’s cosy grotto as he shares a magical story from his legendary book, filled with tales from his incredible adventures across the world.

Afterwards, enjoy a special moment with Santa himself, capturing the magic before you step into the Elves’ Workshop. Here, you’ll get to choose a special cuddly toy to take home and cherish.

Don’t miss out on this one-of-a-kind storytelling adventure with Santa – it’s the perfect way to make new Christmas memories together!

Book now at https://tilgateparkchristmas.co.uk/

03/11/2024

🦤 Just like so many extinct species, Halloween is now behind us, lost to time...

When it comes to extinction, few animals are as iconic as the dodo, our last pumpkin. There are many flightless birds today, such as our emus, but the dodos are a tragic, but fascinating case study of extinction.
Dodos were large, flightless cousins of pigeons, who were only found on Mauritius. Contrary to popular belief, dodos were not hunted to extinction for food; instead their habitat was destroyed, largely through the introduction of feral animals by people.
These new animals, such as pigs, dogs and cats, disrupted the dodo's ecosystem and it became extinct only about one century after it was first discovered!
At the time, few people believed that extinction was actually possible, and the dodo's demise was proof of the impact we can have on the planet. It has since become an emblem of extinction and a reminder that animals can disappear incredibly quickly, unless we do our part to protect them.

📷 Education Officer Richard

02/11/2024

Sabers on Saturday!

Did you use a knife to carve your pumpkin earlier this week? You could have used a saber! Sabers (or sabres, both spellings can be used) are long swords, and several extinct animals had saber-teeth!
Smilodon is one of the most famous saber-toothed cats, with huge teeth almost as long as a ruler! Our Scottish wild cats are fearsome, but their teeth don't quite compare.

This group were apex predators that specialised in bringing down huge prey, but they died out around 10,000 years ago. This was likely due to the extinction of lots of its large prey species.
It's very important that we conserve a range of species, as if one species goes extinct, it will have lots of knock-on effects across the food web and ecosystem.

📷 Education Officer Richard and Keeper El
🎃 Kimmy Butler

02/11/2024

⭐️ Star of the Week ⭐️

Clara, Carol and Spud the capybaras have been a dream this week, as they have been coming into their indoor area for their meals and greeting their keepers each day. They have been known to be rather skittish, and this can be tricky to navigate, as skittish animals are much harder to visually health check. Their new calmer behaviour bodes well for their future wellbeing; long may it continue!

📸 Keeper Billie

01/11/2024

Happy World Stick Insect Day!

They might like to camouflage, but this is their day standing out in the limelight!
The Thai beauty stick insects (also called Zomproi's walking sticks) are fantastic at hiding in plain sight, but today we are celebrating them!
Now these are some pretty large insects aren't they, but there are some very impressive insects in the fossil record too! Examples include the 'griffinfly', the huge dragonfly-relative, which had a wingspan of up to 75cm across!
They are the subject of today's pumpkin!

There are lots of amazing insects to spot in the UK in the modern day, so why not try an Autumn bug hunt? Just remember to put back anything you find and be careful!

📷 Education Officer Richard


World Stick Insect Day

01/11/2024

Did you have a scary evening? Hold on to those Halloween chills with today's creepy !

No, this is not a ghoul in fungus form, this is Coprinus comatus, commonly known as the 'shaggy ink cap', 'lawyer's wig', or 'shaggy mane'. It is a common fungus often seen growing on lawns, along gravel roads and waste areas. The young fruit bodies first appear as white cylinders emerging from the ground, then the bell-shaped caps open out. This was spotted as the cap was starting to melt, which occurs when enzymes within the cap that digest the cap itself. The spores are then released as the cap opens or they drop off with the inky droplets.

You can even make some very good ink from them too!

Please be advised: do not eat any mushrooms that you cannot safely identify. It is best (and safest) to enjoy the fungi by just taking a few pictures and maybe even writing down your findings.

📷 Parks Team Kaiden

31/10/2024

Happy Halloween! Today's terrifying pumpkin is the vicious, villanous Velociraptor!

Things can go bump in the night, but you can't hear barn owls like Fezziwig flapping their wings as they hunt for small rodents. Owls are incredible predators and they share this with their prehistoric ancestors - raptors! Birds evolved from the raptor family of dinosaurs, which includes iconic species like Velociraptor and Deinonychus! Their slashing claws are the stuff of movie monsters and Fezziwig's talons certainly would seem the same to a mouse, vole or shrew!

Velpciraptors went extinct around 71 million years ago, with most other dinosaurs following suit ~66 million years ago, thanks to the impact of a large asteroid. Birds are the dinsoaur's legacy as the sole survivors from their group.
Deflecting asteroids might be a tricky thing to do personally to protect barn owls today, but we can make sure we are keeping noise and light pollution to a minimum when out at night.
These can disturb nocturnal animals; barn owls are often hit by cars after being blinded by a car's main beam. Our choices when we are out and about can help to keep everyone safe, including the more spooky wildlife!

📷 Education Officer Richard
🎃 Kimmy Butler

30/10/2024

🎶 Thisss isssss Halloween...

Snakes have a reputation for being scary, but as visitors saw today, Baldrick the royal python is a total softie! He's not scary at all, but we wouldn't blame anyone nervous about meeting the animal in our 2nd pumpkin - the Titanoboa!
Widely held to be the biggest snake ever, the Titanoboa was an almight 13-14m long! Can you imagine?
They lived approximately sixty million years ago, long before humans evolved, although historical legends often tell of huge snakes found deep in the jungle. I wonder...

Certainly they would not have made good pets! Royal pythons like Baldrick are common in the pet trade, but whilst exotic pets can be fascinating, it's important to always research the soecies and its source thoroughly before purchasing. This ensures that the animal gets the correct care it needs and that you are not supporting the illegal pet trade!

📷 Education Officer Richard

29/10/2024

Oh 'deer'! 🦌 Have we mixed up Halloween and Christmas?

No, it's just our first scary pumpkin! All our caved pumpkins are of extinct species this week and this is an Irish elk! This giant deer had immense antlers 3.5m wide!
They died out ~7,600 years ago, but once roamed across much of Europe and Russia.
With their incredible impressive antlers, they must have been awe-inspiring to see and given how recently they became extinct, our own ancestors would have seen them.
In fact, they have been found depicted in cave paintings! Iduna and Freya the reindeer are just as wonderful too, perhaps someone should create some cave paintings of them too!
Reindeer are threatened by the effects of climate change, so to stop them heading the same way as the Irish elk, consider how you can help lower your carbon footprint, whether that is through travel choices (such as car-sharing or cycling), food choices (such as eating locally sourced and reducing meat consumption) and/or using more reusable items.
happen to also be focussing on extinction this Halloween, so do check out their post on the work that zoos have done to help conserve endangered species.

📷 Education Officer Richard

28/10/2024

🎃 How big are the pumpkins? How big is each animal? Like Halloween, the answer is shrouded in intrigue and mystery!

Every day this week, we will be sharing pumpkin pictures with some of our favourite friends.
Seeing animals, especially ones enjoying seasonal fun is lovely, but on a more serious note, seeing animals is something that we cannot take for granted.
Pumkins might not be too scary, but extinction really is. Whilst the White's tree frog in the first picture is 'least concern', meaning its numbers are not declining in it's natural habitat, the same caanot be said of the other three species. The Chinese water dragons (top right) and crested geckoes (bottom right) are designated as 'vulnerable' species, whose populations are decreasing, but more worryingly the radiated tortoise (bottom left) is critically endangered!
This week, our carved pumpkins all feature extinct species - by learning what drove these past species to extinction, we can do our best in the modern day to protect the species we can still see!

Photo credit: Keeper Bibby