"Cambridgeshire"

Page last revised:
27th October 2004

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DATE:	ANIMAL:	LOCATION:
11 October 2002	SOUTH AMERICAN SQUIRREL MONKEY	Shepreth
4th November 2002	WALLABY	Shepreth
Sat 13 Sept 2003	CORNCRAKES	Not Known
March 2004	BLACK SQUIRRELS	Widespread
9th May 2004	TURKEY VULTURE	Godmanchester
8th June 2004	WATER VOLE	Not Known

 

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Godmanchester
TURKEY VULTURE
Residents in Cambridgeshire have been reporting sightings of, what is believed to be, a large turkey vulture in their gardens. The North American vulture has been evading capture for two weeks now. The bird made its first appearance in Godmanchester, near Huntingdon, and has since been seen in Fen Drayton and Swavesey.

The bird-of-prey has a six-foot wingspan and generally feeds on small animals. The bird is believed to be wearing a ring and anklets, which has lead to the belief that it has escaped from a zoo or a private owner.

Experts say that it is unlikely to attack a cat or dog.

9th May 2004
(Source: BBC News)

The project officer, Amanda Proud will be liaising with drainage authorities and land owners over the management of watercourses. She said that it was a fantastic project to find out how we can increase the numbers of this rare animal. She would be pleased to hear from members of the public and land owners who know of water voles in the local area.

The project is funded by Anglian Water, The Environment Agency, English Nature, The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Biodiversity Partnership and The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough.

If anyone would like to assist the project they can contact Amanda Proud at the Wildlife Trust, telephone number: 01954 713533

8th June 2004
Source: Cambridgeshire Online

Written by: Karen Allison
Contributed by: Terry Dye

File: 2004-205
Ref No: 1295

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Shepworth
SOUTH AMERICAN SQUIRREL MONKEY
(Source: BBC Newsround)
An escaped monkey has been retrurned to its home at Shepworth Wildlife Park after a group of school kids helped to caputure him. The two-year-old South American Squirrel Monkey was playing quite casually around on the path outside the Cambridgeshire School, while the children were in a French lesson. The children realised that the creature - about the size of a domestic cat - wasn't meant to be there, so they kept it busy with fruit when they came out their lesson. They also helped to keep the primate away from traffic while its grateful keepers came to the rescue. The primate had covered a quarter of a mile through a village park after it made its daring escape. the keepers spent approx 20 minutes trying to catch the silly simian, eventually managing to get it back home safely

11th October 2002

File: 2002-11
Ref No: 699

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Shepreth
WALLABY
It has been reported that a three year old Wallaby named Naroona has escaped from Shepreth wildlife park through a fence tat had been broken by recent storms. The keeps at the park chased the wallaby through fields at the edge of the village on the weekend but was unable to catch the mammal.

Lousie Barrel resident of Shepreth said “I was standing outside when I saw some people from the Wildlife Park walk past. I
then looked across the field behind our garden and saw the wallaby hopping down along the side of the railway line which runs from Cambridge to London. "I was a bit concerned that it was going to jump up on to the line but it hopped off in the other direction with the people from the park following it. It looked quite harmless and it seemed to be enjoying itself. "It's not the first strange creature that we've seen which has escaped from the wildlife park. "A few years ago a capybara, which is a kind of South American guinea pig about as big as a pig, got out and was living in the fields for quite a few days. A few weeks ago my daughter and some of her friends watched them catch a monkey outside the village hall." Ms Barrell added: "This is all quite a bit of fun and the wallaby isn't doing any harm and we hope it's captured safely. "But the worry of some of us living in the village is that if a wallaby and a monkey can escape, then could one of the tigers get out? We very much hope that they can't and they never will."

Also Mr Nick Mann who lives close to the Wildlife centre said “My wife Anna was standing looking out of our front window and said, 'a wallaby has just gone bouncing down the High Street'. "It was about ten o'clock. "It was heading towards the next village and then it turned left and lurked about in some gardens for a while. "I followed to try and get some pictures and the last I saw it was bouncing through some fields with the keepers in hot pursuit. "They were talking about getting a dart tranquilliser gun to subdue it."

It is also known that month a monkey had escaped fro the Wildlife park which was found by pupils as they left their French class at a local primary school. It was the captured by park staff as the pupils at Shepreth school kept the monkey entertained by feeding the monkey fruit. Local Authority has now given the go ahead to keep two tigers after checking the safety precautions of which villagers were concerned.

Unfortunately there was no one available from the wildlife park to comment on this matter.

(Source: Cambridgeshire Evening News - 4th November 2002)

Re-Written By: Cher Jenkins

File: 2002-12
Ref No: 1791

Update:
Wallaby’s walkabout has come to an end
Naroona the three year old Wallaby that escaped from Shepreth Wildlife Park has been tracked down and staff at the Shepreth Wildlife Park are just waiting for the right moment to capture her.

Bosses at the Shepreth Wildlife Park were very concerned for Naroona’s welfare, even though Naroona is very unlikely to run out of food as she is a herbivore and can live of the land eating grass and leaves they were very worried that she may come across an aggressive dog or be hit by traffic as she would have no road sense at all, But now that Naroona has been tracked down to Meldreth she is living in an open space which is away from any main roads, staff are very confident that she is safe.

Mr Jake Walters , owner of the wildlife park said "She's got food and shelter and we are quite happy about her safety. We are now just waiting for the ideal time to catch her. "We are waiting for the weather to lift, but we will need as many people as possible to be around to catch her. "Wallabies can travel at 30mph and the last thing we want to do is frighten her off or use a dart gun which could have a detrimental effect on her."

(Source: Cambridgeshire Evening News - 20th November 2002

Re-Written By Cher jenkins

File: 2002-12
Ref No: 1790

Shepreth Wallaby Finally captured
Naroona the wallaby that had escaped from Shepreth Wildlife Par has now been captured. She has been missing from the park for two months after bad weather had brought down the parks fence.

The park had received a telephone call from Mr Mick Day a local farmer in Shepreth so say that the Wallaby was in his barn. Mr Willers from the park said “We shot down there, and sure enough we found wallaby droppings and an area where she had obviously been sleeping. "We had a look among the trees and saw her in the middle of a copse. We flushed her out towards the river, she jumped in and we jumped in after her and caught ourselves a wallaby."

There was two members of staff evolved in capturing Naroona which were park manager Colin Elcombe and a trainee supervisor Sam Chapman. They had to jump into the river Meld in hot pursuit of the Wallaby. Mr Willers said “We've dried her off and she's in very good health. And she had happily settled back into her old life.”

(Source: Cambridgeshire Evening News - 10th January 2003)

Re-Write By: Cher Jenkins

File: 2002-12
Ref No: 1789

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CORNCRAKES
One of Europe’s most endangered birds had been reared and released into the wild.
Corncrakes, a species of bird that dies out in this country have been reared and released. Four birds, reared by the Zoological Society of London, RSPB and English Nature were released at a reserve in Cambridgeshire.

Sat 13 Sept 2003

File: 2003-84
Ref No: 842

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BLACK SQUIRRELS
For over two years now, Cambridgeshire has been home to black squirrels. It would appear that they are now growing in number. A Cambridge University group recently appealed for any information on the black squirrels.

Exactly why the black colouration has occurred remains a mystery. One possibility is that a melanistic strain has evolved. They seem to be concentrated in the Cambridgeshire area. Great numbers of them are appearing in villages in the area, including Madingley, Girton and Dry Drayton. They have also been spotted in the city.

A family, which was feeding a pair of black squirrels, have now got an entire family of them living in their garden. It appears that the pair bred and that their offspring were black too.

March 2004

File: 2004-128
Ref No: 1098

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Chris Mullins

Co-ordinator
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