Seeing red (orange) at the British Wildlife Center

This weekend takes me a little further out from London, all the way to Surrey. It's also my first time on the London Railway, and probably my 2nd time on a real train. The train was supposed to stop at Lingfield in Surrey, but as luck would have it, I was up late the night before, and feel asleep on the train, and missed my stop, and only woke up at the terminus :( Thankfully, the terminus is only one stop away from Lingfield, so I just enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate while I waited the half hour for the train to make the return journey.

Now unlike Richmond park, where I already knew there was a bus right up to the gates, the British Wildlife Center does not have public buses that take you right up to the gates. For people without driving licences like me, the only way there is to catch a cab. As luck would have it, there was one waiting at Lingfield when I exited the train station. (As I would learn later, it was pure luck that I had a cab waiting - in general one needs to call for a cab in advance when visiting these locales)

Ten minutes later, I was smack dab in the middle of the wilderness, at the gates of the British Wildlife Center.

As the name might suggest, this center specializes in conservation for several species native to Great Britain. These include critters like Otters, Red Squirrels and Water Voles, to name a few.


Must come back in winter to see if I catch them with their ear tufts

My usual subject as usual, was wolves. Unfortunately, the wildlife center lacks wolves so the next nearest relative I could find, was the humble fox.



There was also a very young rescued fox named Luna. I think she made my day. Utter furball of energy and cuteness.





The otters were quite active to the delight of the visitors and fellow photographers (I counted so many white lenses lol), especially at mealtime when they had fish. From the scent, it's something I won't mind on a nice piece of toast, with cream cheese =)


European Otter

One thing I did not realize till much later in the day was that these are European Otters, and they are much larger compared to the Asian Short Clawed otter I've seen in previous places. I original thought that because these were relatively older specimens, that they were that big! I was wrong.

Other fascinating critters include the minuscule water voles.


They had a whole area filled with tunnels, a water area and platforms for food. (You know, at times like this I wish I had a wide angle shot of what I'm describing...)

Badgers of course.


The area they were in seemed pretty big, and includes another indoor section.

Another section of the BWC was still under construction, a copse designed for the Red Squirrels. Right now it's being inhabited by a few Muntjac deer and a rabbit (Well I only saw one :P).




I'm too cheap for photoshop. And too lazy for gimp.

This only covers a really small bit of the park; there is a huge outdoor area dedicated to deer, as well as an entire wetland reserve. There is also an area where some birds of prey are kept. Love the eagle owl. Inside the main facilities, is a whole indoor area where you can see a hedgehog during feeding time, as well as field mice, black and brown mice, and weasels. Light levels there are pretty low, and I wish I had an shorter stablized lens for indoor use.

Will definitely want to visit again, but there are so many other wildlife places abound!