I've always wanted to visit Cornwall so on the 26 April 2014 we decided to venture to North Cornwall for a few days. We were staying in Bodmin and decided to pop into the Tamar Otter & Wildlife Centre on the way.
It is situated near Launceston and even though it was a rainy day we still chose to visit. We got there just before 12pm and there was plenty of free parking - after we paid our entrance fee of £8.00 per adult we were told to head to one of the members of staff who was just about to feed the otters.
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| The Tamar Otter & Wildlife Centre |
They have both British and Asian short-clawed otters living in very spacious enclosures. The employee who was feeding them was friendly and very informative about the otters, she had no problem answering our questions about them. I think she was impressed we embraced the weather and and seeing as it was only Dan and I at one point it felt like our own private tour. We were shown the British otters first who were highly amusing and noisy demanding their fresh fish.
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| An otter enjoying it's fresh fish |
Once we saw all of the British otters she took us to see the giant rabbits and Jack the kestrel. The rabbits had just had kits and got one out for us to see - as you can see by the pic the 'baby' rabbit is huge! Jack the kestrel on the other hand was petite and beautiful :)
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| A not so small kit |
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| Beautiful Jack the Kestrel |
After she showed us around we were free to roam the rest of the wildlife park (nb - you don't have to spend any time with the staff, but it is great and informative). We made our way to the pond where there was an array of different waterfowl including coots with their babies, tufted and white ducks. Around the pond were a few other enclosures including a gorgeous little owl and there were a lot of feeders available for local wild birds to feed on. We were only there a short while watching them but saw blue, coal & great tits, as well as chaffinches and nuthatches.
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| Little Owl |
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| Coal Tit |
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| Nuthatch |
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| Great Tit |
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| Tufted Duck |
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| ...a flock of ducks |
From here we headed up to the woodland enclosures, on the way we passed a few more creatures including chipmunks and cockatiels. You pass through a big gate to get to the woodland area where fallow deer, wallbies and muntjac roam free.
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| Chipmunk |
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| Cockatiel |
In the woodland area you can purchase deer food for 50p and feed the fallow deer. Unfortunately the only deer I fed was the greedy male stag who wouldn't let any of the other deers near me. I briefly looked away and all the food and paper bag had gone in one mouthful lol. There's also muntjac that roam free, but I didn't see any (probably because of the rain).
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| Feeding the greedy deer |
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| Fallow deers look on in the rain. |
They have a number of birds of prey in the woodland area including buzzard, tawny & snowy owls. There's also turkeys and wallabies that roam free, in fact we saw both a young turkey and wallaby with a joey which was a treat.
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| Buzzard |
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| Tawny Owl |
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| Turkey |
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| Wallaby |
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| Wallaby and joey |
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| Turkey chick |
The woodland walk is fantastic and there were even traces of Bluebells left giving the woodland some colour. Near an old quarry is where the Scottish wildcat enclosure is - they are Britain's rarest mammal and are there as part of a breeding and reintroduction programme. Unfortunately due to the wet weather we didn't see them :(
We made our way back to the main part of the park and visited the Asian short-clawed otters. They were extremely curious and we glanced at our watches realising it was feeding time again - hence the load screams!
There were also alot of peacocks around, including a beautiful white one - but they had the right idea and most were sheltering in the shed.
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| Asian Short-clawed Otters |
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| Peacock |
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Guineafowl
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| The peacocks sheltering from the rain |
At 2.30pm everyday they have a birds of prey talk and we were lucky enough to meet a beautiful harris hawk called Skylar and aa absolutely gorgeous eagle owl named Karulah. We had a really informative talk about the two of them and you could even touch them. Quite an experience to be so close to fantastic creatures like this.
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| Skylar the Harris Hawk |
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| Dan meets Skylar |
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| Karulah - Bengal Eagle Owl |
We had a fantastic time (even though it rained almost all of the time we were there - that's Great British weather for you!) and we would loved to go back and see all of the things we missed like the wildcats, meerkats and otter pups. It's a lovely place and not too big that it would tire you out. They also have a gift shop and tea room there but being so wet we just wanted to get back to the hotel to dry off. Next time though we would love to try some food there :)
Tamar Otter & Wildlife Center was definitely a great start to our holiday and if anyone is in that part of the world and loves animals then this is a hidden gem. We look forward to returning...with nicer weather hopefully! :)
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| British Otter poses for the camera |
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| Such characters but so beautiful |
Check out their website here:
www.tamarotters.co.uk
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