July, 2008 - Diary

The giraffes are here - three beautiful ladies from Fota, near Cork in Southern Ireland. Aged between 5 and 7, they have settled in really well after a long journey by road. They arrived at 10.30 pm, so all was quiet as they unloaded into their new home, blinking at the bright lights. Their keeper, John, travelled with the first two, and was pleased to meet the new keepers who would look after his charges.

Their first foray into the outside enclosure took a little time, but, once out, they spent time surveying their new surroundings. The house will be open from this weekend, 19th July, so come along and meet Blackpool's tallest residents in person.

The girls are Caoimhe (pronounced Quiver), Ciara and her sister, Siabdh (Sive). They are, of course, available for adoption.

Hayley, Mammals Section Head (18th July, 2008)

Hey, there, Aardvark fans! How are you all? Have you been on Facebook to make friends with me yet? Don't forget to have a look.

Well, fans, guess what? That nice Darren who looks after the Zoo has only decided to bring along some of my relatives! Yes, that's right, aardvarks! I hope they'll be here very soon so you can all see what amazing creatures we really are! My cousins are coming from two other countries in Europe, so I do hope they'll understand me, but I can't wait! How exciting - only two other zoos in England actually have aardvarks so my friend, Keeper Hayley, has been to visit them (and to give them a tickle!) so that she knows all about them when they arrive. As soon as Darren tells me when they're coming, I'll let you know.

See you all very soon!

Arnie Aardvark (28th June, 2008)

Friday night's Dreamnight at the Zoo was a tremendous success - smiling faces everywhere for 3 hours! Just take a little time to look at the photos - believe me, it's time well spent. Click here.

Jude Rothwell, Marketing & PR Executive (10th June, 2008)

Guess who? Yes, it's me again! Arnie, the greatest aardvark in Blackpool!

Bit of news for you - you can come along to my amazing play barn for half price - yes, that's HALF PRICE - from the 16th until the 22nd June. Only £1.50 to enjoy all my superb play equipment - how very cool is that?

Love from Arnie Aardvark xxxxxxxxxxxx (3rd June, 2008)

Hey, folks - Arnie here!

Guess what? Ihave my very own profile on Facebook.com - it has my video and everything! Why not visit (click here and search for Arnie Aardvark) and become my friend? Let's see how many I can get! See you soon!

Love Arnie Aardvark xxxxxxxx (28th May, 2008)

If you're on holiday during 26th - 30th May, pop in and see us here at the Zoo. We are holding a British Native Species Week and our Education team will be holding workshops on how to build bird, bat and bee boxes for your own gardens. They will explain the techniques involved so that you can go away and make your own. We're very grateful to Barton Grange Garden Centre near Garstang who are lending us some examples of nest boxes to show those who aren't very good with a hammer! If children bring along some fruit, nuts or seeds for the boxes, they will receive a 20% discount on their admission fee.

There will also be face-painting, quiz trails, creepy crawlies and loads of activities to tire you out. If you haven't already seen our baby donkeys and reindeer, they are certainly worth a visit. See you soon!

Jude Rothwell, Marketing & PR Executive (22nd May, 2008)

If anyone has noticed that Danny, our dark brown Mediterranean Miniature donkey has not been around this week, it's because he's gone on his holidays! As there are foals about (two here and one due), their mums get very anxious when Danny, who is a stallion and the foals' father, is around. So he has gone Over Wyre for a few weeks for a change of scenery.

He's settled in very well and has made a new friend (in the picture) called Milton, a 5 year old miniature Shetland pony. Although they were slightly wary of each other at first, they're now the best of friends.

Jude Rothwell, Marketing & PR Executive (8th May, 2008)

Please take a looks at the Events page - there's some real "aping around" going on!!

Yvette, Research Co-ordinator (6th May, 2008)

Hello, I thought I'd introduce myself - my name's Mark, and I've just joined the Zoo's marketing team on a part-time basis to deal directly with the hoteliers in Blackpool. I also work in the catering department, so I may have served your coffee if you're thinking that you know the face!

I met Bimbo, the Zoo's new male sealion last week and he seemed really pleased to say hello!!

Mark Woodsford, Field Sales Executive (6th May, 2008)

We are inundated with babies at the moment - they're everywhere! Our little hog, Ferguson, is doing very well indeed as you can see below. We've also had five reindeer calves so far, two out of three donkeys in the Children's Zoo, a silvery marmoset and an emu, the first for years. You might notice our pelicans nesting by the flamingo lake - that's the first time ever here at Blackpool, so keep your fingers crossed!

Our new zebra, Helene, has settled in and become very close to our male, Lucas, so we're hopeful that the relationship might develop into the patter of tiny hooves next year!

Hayley, Mammals Section Head (6th May, 2008)

Our new zebra arrived on the night of Tuesday, 22nd. She's called Helene and has come to us from Prague Zoo - unfortunately, the second zebra we were hoping for was found to be unable to travel. Helene has settled in very well indeed and is gradually being introduced to Lucas and Bette.

We had a busy day on Tuesday - we also received two white agile wallabies, two capybara and some blue-crowned conures (which we hope to allow to free-fly in Amazonia) from other UK zoos. The new giraffe house gets under way next week as the construction team begin work on Monday.

Our keepers are also hand-rearing a very cute red river hog baby who was born on the 17th, but his mum wasn't very keen on him. The staff take it in turns to take him home at night as he's bottle fed every 3 -4 hours. He's getting outside now to play on the grass which he loves. We'll get some pictures of him sorted very soon.

Pete, Head Keeper (25th April, 2008).

We are currently renovating our zebra paddock, ready for the arrival of one female zebra next week, from the Czech Republic. She will be joining Lucas and Bette, our Hartmanns Zebras and our ostriches.

One of our primate keepers took a pygmy marmoset upto our sister attraction, the Lakes Aquarium, this week. It joins the existing marmoset to make a breeding pair.

Our collegues at Chester Zoo bought us a Great Grey Owl this week. She will become the partner for our male owl. She's currently in quarantine, but will be on show in the next week or so.

I'll update you next week on the development of our new giraffe enclosure.

Pete, Head Keeper (18 April 2008)

Spring has arrived - or so they tell us! The weather hasn't been very springlike just yet, but we have had quite a few new baby animals already. We have a stunning baby bongo called Kamili, an African word for 'perfection' - if you see her, you'll know why. There's also a tiny, but very lively, de Brazza monkey which spends all its time tormenting its sisters, ring-tailed lemurs hitching a ride on their Mums' backs, and even a beautiful silvery marmoset in the enclosure next to the red pandas.

We have all just been given our new uniforms, they are in safari colours - khaki and dark green. Look out for us on your next visit and we'd be happy to answer any questions that you have on our animals.

The Keepers (April 18th 2008)

My brand new playbarn, Aardvark's Adventures (named after me of course), is now OPEN. Today I had some very special people visiting, even the Deputy Mayor and his family, they all came to help me officially open my playbarn. I performed live for them all!! I showed them all my 'Arnie Dance' and some of the kids got up and danced with me to my 'Arnie Song'. Darren the Director was there, but he wouldn't dance - boring! I also heard that someone in the marketing team (they didn't dance either!) filmed me and are putting it on YouTube - how cool is that!

Lots of you kids have joined my club and I can't wait to meet you all. Anyway, I better go now as I have lots of friends here playing and I must go and see them all.

Bye For Now

Arnie Aardvark (17th April 2008)