On Wednesday 6th May we were delighted to welcome Rosie and Dennis and a selection of their animal friends from Animal Magic. We saw a week-old wild rabbit whose eyes or ears were not yet open. This rabbit had been rescued from someone’s garden. While the week-old rabbit was tiny we were also introduced to a Flemish Giant Rabbit which was the biggest rabbit any of us had ever seen before. The Flemish Giant Rabbit comes from Belgium.
We were amazed to see a Red Kneed Mexican Tarantula up close and personal. This tarantula was quite docile. It can spin silk but does not need to spin a web to catch its prey as it is strong enough and fast enough to catch prey without one. The tarantula sheds its exoskeleton at least once a year.
We were introduced to two different owls, a Tawny Owl and a Burrowing Owl. The Burrowing Owl is a diurnal bird, this means it is active during the day time. The Tawny Owl is nocturnal, active at night. The Tawny Owl had much bigger eyes to help it see during the darker hours.
An animal that none of us had ever heard of or seen before was the Tenrec. The Tenrec is native to Madagascar. It is a small animal, not much bigger than an adult’s fist and is related to the mole and the shrew. The Tenrec has a coat of spines, not as strong as a hedgehog’s, more like a brush. Unusually, as well as hibernation (going asleep during cold weather) the Tenrec also goes through aestivation, this is when an animal goes to sleep during hot and dry weather.
A visit from Rosie would not be complete without a snake of some sort. This time she brought a Milksnake. The Milksnake comes from America and is a beautifully striped snake with red, black and white stripes. The highlight of the visit was when we all got to put the snake around our necks!
