Well done BBC1

It was fabulous to see our water voles and the brook near Tesco featured on national prime-time tv! (Click to see the short film)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/nature/uk/records/search/?templatestyle=&config=ft&attrib_1=SearchText;oper_1=%3D%3D;val_1=vole;preferred_range_length=&;Template=map.tmpl;attrib_99=tag;oper_99=eq;val_99=derived~geolocatable

I can remember so clearly, at the first volunteer training day in April 2006, saying I was sure there were voles there, and a lot of people shaking their heads. Yet it's now recognized as the one public space round here where you can almost be guaranteed a sighting, as long as you go at the right time of day and year. So power to the voles, and to community volunteers here and across the country. It's wonderful seeing all those people working together to make a difference.

Still on The Nature of Britain, here's another clip showing Chester Zoo's captive breeding scheme:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/nature/uk/records/search/?val_1=cheshire&attrib_1=SearchText&oper_1=eq&config=ft&Template=generic_search.tmpl&page=1&pagesize=6&x=5&y=10
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And please, Mr Supermarket, can we sort these trolleys out?

A Painter in Paradise

Popped up to the zoo again, this time to see Rosie Rees's smashing art exhibition, 'A Painter in Paradise'. Lovely studies of animals!

While I was there, I checked in at the reedbed by the elephant house, and took these photos.

Chester Zoo again

This is a baby, and about the size of a field vole.

Captive Breeding Programmes

Took the children to Chester Zoo today and was delighted to find they'd established their colony of free-range water voles. Some of them came quite close and there was a hide where you could sit and watch them.
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Chester Zoo is one of several places - like Bristol Zoo, Wildwood in Kent, Derek Gow's water vole farm - where voles are bred in captivity to get the numbers up and with a view to eventual wider release. Blackpool Zoo has been involved in helping with mitigation procedure, providing a place for voles to stay while building work or landscaping disturbs their burrows. Personally I'd like to see UK zoos concentrating much more on this sort of project.