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Newsletter - Chapter 2

Winter 2008

Index

- News update
- Jungle Room Files
- Old friends
- Moving on
- Funky Facts
- Jungle jokes
- Live foods

News Update

Lots has been happening the past few months, read this winters quarterly update is what we have been up to,

The Official Launch Party

Unfortunately we have had to push back our Launch Party. The good news is that we have set an official date! It will be on the 23st of January, and a wonderful night to celebrate our first year helping unwanted and rescued animals!

A New Home!

We are pleased to announce that The Jungle Fortress has found a new home in Hersham! We hope that within the first half of 2009 all the animals will be housed at our new centre, where we will then arrange visits for adopters to meet their friends. For more details visit the adoption section of the website.

Exotic Workshops

We have been working very hard to make school packages the best experience we can offer! As we have only just started work in schools we have created workshops aimed at key stage levels 1 and 2. The workshops include a talk by our keepers, a close encounter with some of the animals we have at the sanctuary, followed by a game, activity or quiz based around what they have learnt during the session.

Our Animbulance (our van)!

After extensive research on biodiesel we have decided against using this to fuel the animbulance. Although biodiesel releases less carbon dioxide, it releases greater amounts of nitrogen, a chemical far more harmful to the environment. The van is very light and won't be carrying many people, so it will be a very eco-friendly car considering it runs on diesel, making it far more economic than petrol.

Jungle Room Files

Newcomers
Here are some updates on new animals in the Jungle Room:

Renton and Begbie

Renton and Begbie are two dumbo rats (Rattus domesticus). They are around 4 months old and were part of an unwanted litter. They are a very friendly couple, and love their food! As they are so young and friendly we will be able to teach them to come to their names, making them ideal for introducing people to an otherwise misunderstood species!

Storm and Tempest

Storm and Tempest are very young terrapins (Trachemys sp.). They came to us as their owners were unable to keep them properly, and wanted them to have a bigger home with more friends. In spite of their unfortunate start to life they are now living in a big pond, and being looked after by our grown up terrapins. Although they have lots of things to climb on they mostly hide away among the rocks.

Clever and Trevor

Clever and Trevor (Trachemys sp.) are another pair of terrapins came to us as unwanted pets. They are the most adventurous of all the terrapins as we always see them outside of the water basking below their lamp or climbing up the water fountain!

Nemo

Nemo is a leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius) who came to us as his owner needed to move out of his house suddenly and so was left without a home. He is one of our more nervous animals but with time we hope he will tame down and become an ambassador for Jungle Fortress.

Scampi

Scampi is a yellow-throated plated lizard (Gherrosaurus flavigularis). He came to us as his owner could no longer take care of him due to his studies. He is very quick, and very nervous, and may have been wild caught. He now shares Kinky's home, living at the bottom of the enclosure. He can often be seen basking on his cave.

Old Friends

Here are some updates on some animals we spoke about in our last newsletter…

Kinky

Kinky the chameleon (Chamaeleo calyptratus), who came to us as a baby, quickly outgrew his home. He now lives in a 6-foot high enclosure, a kind of chameleon palace! He lives very peacefully among the leaves, which means that most of the time we don't see him very much. This suits him just fine as he's very territorial, meaning he's always grumpy if we disturb him.

Sir Kenneth of Ashford

Ken the bearded dragon (Pogona vittatus) has recovered well after his ordeal out in the wilds of Ashford. Although, at first, we weren't sure that he was going to survive, he has now put on weight. While he is still missing some of the scales from his tail after being attacked by a cat, he has regained his beautiful colours! He can still feel like he's in the wild as he has an 8-foot by 4-foot enclosure all for himself, giving him plenty of room to roam around!

Rocky

Rocky the boa constrictors (Boa constrictor) temper certainly hasn't improved, he is still as grumpy as ever despite now having a very large new enclosure. He still occasionally has relapses of his old health problems, meaning he needs a lot of care and looking after. This isn't always easy, and we hope with time he will become more tame, helping us to give him the attention he needs.

Obituary

Unfortunately some of the animals we have come in are already very old, and so we had to say goodbye to a few of our friends.

Marjory Stewart Baxter

Marjory was a gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus), who came to us with Hubert Cumberdale as they were too old to be sold. We found her in their enclosure being groomed by Hubert. She passed away of old age but at least we were able to make the end of her life great! We now keep Hubert occupied all the time, with plenty to keep him busy and lots of treats.

Baboon

Baboon was a King Baboon Tarantula (Citharischius crawshayi). We were unsure if she would survive her next moult as she had already shed badly once before she came to us. She was probably the calmest King Baboon tarantula you could find, and unfortunately she passed away from old age. She was one of the largest tarantulas here at the sanctuary.

Funky facts

· The Chameleon doesn't actually change colour to camouflage with its surroundings, it changes colour in accordance with it moods!

· The leopard gecko can drop off its tail in order to evade capture by a predator and then re-grow it. This process is known as autonomy and is used by many lizards and all arachnids.

· An adult pink toe tarantula is able to jump up to 6 foot in length.

· The feather leg baboon tarantula's venom is reported to cause an irregular heart beat once someone has been bitten.

· A rat is able to fall from a 2 storey building and walk away unharmed

Jungle Jokes

Which hand would you use to pick up a dangerous snake?

Someone else's!

What do giraffes have that no other animal has?

Baby giraffes

Live Foods

If you have an exotic pet and feed live food to it, please bear in mind that crickets and locusts are living beings too.

We like to encourage feeding them lettuce and putting a watered tissue in their box.

Doing this not only improves the quality of life for the crickets or locusts but, means that they will live for longer and be more nutritious for your pet.

Summary Letter

Hello,

Hope you enjoyed this winters update, as we are a small organisation your contributions go straight to the animals!

We guarantee that the animals appreciate the help just as much as we do if not more!

Thank you for your support

Jamie and Lucie

:)