Drusillas Park

Sid and Scrat from Ice Age will switch on the spectacular Winter Wonderland Illuminations at Drusillas Park this year, when they visit the award-winning zoo for the first time ever on Saturday 30th November.

The beloved duo will meet and greet visitors at intervals throughout the day before switching on the lights during a grand ceremony at 4.30pm, marking the official start to Drusillas Park’s Christmas Winter Wonderland 2013.

Sid and Scrat are sure to feel right at home as the spectacular Illuminations are set within an ice-capped kingdom and feature an animal themed light show synchronised to music. Young revellers can see a host of magical creatures within the dazzling display, adding some extra sparkle to the festive season from 4.30pm each day, from Saturday 30th November until Sunday 5th January.

Also making his first appearance of the year on 30th November, Father Christmas will make a welcome return to the zoo. Visit his cosy Christmas Cottage and have your picture taken in his sleigh; for a small additional charge children can meet Santa and receive an early Christmas gift.  Plus visitors can also Hug a Husky on selected dates, or enjoy a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie.

Drusillas Park takes in Giant Spider Found in Shipping Container from Asia.

A giant stowaway spider that travelled from Taiwan to St Leonards On Sea in a shipping container has been rehomed to Drusillas Park following an RSPCA rescue.

The large huntsman gave staff working at the Seventies BMX parts company on Moorhurst Road the fright of their life when they discovered it lurking in a shipment from Asia on Monday 4 November. Warehouse Manager, Joe Woodburn was unloading the boxes when his colleague spotted the seven-inch arachnid.

He said: “My mate saw it on the box I was holding. He froze and couldn’t get his words out fast enough. It was as big as of the palm of my hand. We managed to get it into a big plastic container where we kept it while we called the RSPCA. I thought it was plastic at first as it wasn’t moving, but the minute it was in the sunlight it started to warm up and was running around and jumping up the side of the box. We get containers like this all the time and we have always joked that one day we’d open one up to find some kind of ferocious animal in there but I never expected to find a spider as big as this.”

The huntsman spider was collected by the RSPCA on the same day before being delivered to its new home at Drusillas Park, near Alfriston on Thursday 7 November.

Spider expert, Angela Hale from Drusillas Park commented: “I am really excited to have this fantastic creature in our care; it’s not everyday that a spider this big is brought to us. Giant huntsman spiders are found all over the tropics and have exceptionally long legs that spread out to the side and this is why they are sometimes called crab spiders. They are not dangerous or aggressive but can move extremely fast if disturbed. I am sure it would have given the guys in the warehouse a bit of a fright when they found it.”

RSPCA inspector Tony Woodley, who delivered the spider to Drusillas Park, commented that he wasn’t surprised that the spider had survived despite being locked in the shipping container for six weeks while it made its way from Taiwan to St Leonards On Sea.

As the festive season swings into action and parents up and down the country puzzle as to what to place under the tree for their little monkeys, we may have the answer to stop you going completely crackers this Christmas!

The Drusillas Keeper for the Day scheme is a unique treat for anyone who is mad about animals. Working side by side with one of the zoo team for a whole day, you can get nose to nose with nature with the opportunity to feed, clean and care for a variety of furry and feathered friends.

Or how about our Close Encounters experiences, which provide an excellent opportunity to meet some of the zoo’s most popular residents. You can have lunch with the lemurs, meet the meerkats, have tea with the racoons or beavers, or feed the penguins. There is also the chance to snuggle up to a snake or tickle a tarantula!

Alternatively, the annual adoption scheme allows children to learn about the importance of animal welfare, without all the costs and responsibilities associated with owning a pet. All of the animals here at Drusillas are available for adoption and the income generated helps support the zoo’s ongoing animal care and conservation programmes. Adopters receive a photo, a certificate signed by a Zoo Director, a plaque on or near the animal’s enclosure and a complimentary ticket to visit the new member of the family. 

This week our pair of red pandas, Mulan and Tibao received a seasonal surprise when zoo keepers presented them with a frightful feast of BamBOO, marking the start of Shriek Week at the zoo.

The bamboo was inserted into the top of jack-o-lanterns providing a hairy looking Halloween feast. Not knowing whether it was a trick or treat, the pandas approached the seasonal surprise with caution before nibbling their way through the tasty tuck.

Tibao and Mulan were introduced at Drusillas Park earlier this year as part of the European breeding programme and it is hoped they will have a family of their own in due course.  In the wild these mild mannered creatures inhabit the Himalayan mountains of China, India and Nepal where they are threatened by habitat destruction and hunting. They live on their own or in small family groups and live almost entirely on bamboo.

Due to their seasonal nature, pumpkins are not often enjoyed by the residents of the zoo. Nevertheless, they make an ideal animal snack as they are a great source of potassium, Vitamin A and are also high in fibre. The seeds are rich in minerals, essential fats, protein and are a good source of zinc, providing a delicious and nutritious nibble. However, the pandas were only really interested in their beloved bamboo!!

Scooby-Doo at Drusillas!

Masked villains better beware this Halloween as the crime cracking canine, Scooby-Doo, bounds in for some monster fun at Drusillas Park on Wednesday 30th October.

Part of the international spook solving team Mystery Inc. Scooby-Doo always brings a tail of excitement wherever he goes.

With a nose for adventure, Scooby-Doo will be investigating at the Events Arena at various intervals throughout the day adding to another paw-fect day at Drusillas. Come and investigate with the cowardly hero but don't forget the Scooby snacks!

The guest appearance will take part during the zoo’s Halloween Shriek Week, which promises some spook-tacular fun between Saturday 26th October and Sunday 3rd November.

As Halloween approaches, keepers at Drusillas Park have noticed an increase in the number of strange and eerie calls at night as they carry out their evening checks. The noises appear to be coming from the direction of Lemurland where the zoo’s popular ring-tailed lemurs reside.

The scientific name for ring-tailed lemurs is lemur catta meaning ghost cat in latin. The species earned this name due to their ability to move stealthily through the trees in almost deathly silence as well as their wide staring eyes which give them a somewhat spooky demeanour. The lemurs are also cat-like in size and appearance, with white angular ears.

However lemurs are not always quiet; they have a complex and distinct array of vocalisations including wailing, cackling and shrieking. Their mysterious howl is audible up to half a mile away and it is this noise that has been causing the keepers quite a fright.  

Zoo Keeper, Jodie Dryden commented: “The lemurs tend to howl at the end of the day and they seem particularly vocal at the moment; the sound can be quite menacing especially at night when the Park is closed. The evenings are drawing in now and the lemurs have made me jump on several occasions whilst carrying out my evening checks. I think they just do it to scare me but I can definitely see why they are named ghost cats.”

Drusillas Park Zoo Keeper, Jodie Dryden has organised a charity quiz to raise funds for critically endangered Sulawesi black crested macaques; a species she looks after at the award winning attraction in East Sussex. 

Over 250 people signed up for the quiz which took part on the same night in five different UK zoos. Along with Drusillas, employees from ZSL London, Newquay, Paignton and Dudley Zoo all took part, raising a combined total of £1243. Each zoo was provided with the same questions written by Jodie, covering ten categories such as sport, animals, celebrities, music and history.

Sadly Sulawesi macaques are critically endangered in the wild.  The population has declined by as much as 80% over the last 40 years mainly due to habitat destruction and hunting. The large primates are considered a local delicacy and are currently being killed at an unsustainable rate.

Earlier this year Jodie travelled to Indonesia to witness the plight of the monkeys first hand. During her five week field trip, she volunteered for the Selamatkan Yaki Conservation Programme working to raise awareness for the macaques and their native habitat. The money raised from the Quiz Night will be donated to the charity and will be used to purchase a project car, enabling the team to travel around the island visiting more schools, universities and events than ever before.

At Drusillas 90 members of staff and volunteers made up of 17 teams, entered the quiz raising a total of £342.40. However it was the Quizzy Rascals, consisting of Finance and Administration personnel, who were victorious securing the much coveted winners’ title on the night.

Today is World Animal Day which started in 1931 in Florence to highlight the plight of endangered species. October 4th was chosen as the recognised date as it the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals.

Today, World Animal Day remembers and pays tribute to all animals and the people who love and respect them! Striving to maintain good harmonious relationships with our creatures is paramount to their conservation and survival. It is important to recognise the enjoyment, satisfaction and beauty all creatures give mankind and therefore we must never take them for granted and must always ensure their conservation and welfare is never under threat. 

The Adventures of Pinch and Pinch never cease to amaze us here at Drusillas. They've yet again got themselves into the months theme and this time its Halloween!

Come and join us for Shriek Week in Half-term and explore the eerie events and haunted houses that are bound to have your horrors in hysterics! Scooby-Doo, Edens Eye's Mummy and Druisllas's Creepy Crawlies will all be making an appearance so make sure you fly your way down to get involved in all the terror! 

Check out our Halloween page http://www.drusillas.co.uk/halloween-activities-in-east-sussex for further information, while keep looking at our Twitter (@drusillaspark) and Facebook (Drusillas Park) pages for day to day updates. 

Happy Halloween!!!

  Drusillas Park has recently completed a deal with Japanese company Sanrio and will be launching a brand new attraction in Spring 2014 to be known as Hello Kitty Secret Garden.

The Hello Kitty attraction will become a permanent addition to the well known zoo park in Alfriston, East Sussex and will be the first of its kind in the UK.

With an English garden setting, three rides including a Hello Kitty car ride, a tea cup ride and a “reach for the sky” hopper ride, the attraction will excite Hello Kitty fans of all ages. A Hello Kitty bedroom and beauty parlour, as well as regular meet and greet event days over holiday periods, will also be included in the project.

Drusillas Park is widely regarded as the best small zoo in the UK and was named ‘Visitor Attraction of the Year’ by Tourism South East in 2010/11 as well as ‘Company of the Year’ in the Sussex Business Awards in 2009. Partnering with Hello Kitty, the UK’s number one girls brand to launch a Hello Kitty Secret Garden will be the company’s biggest investment and is expected to top £1million.

Managing Director Laurence Smith said: “Drusillas has always been a mix of animals and leisure attractions and we think Hello Kitty and Drusillas are a perfect match and we will be working very hard to ensure that this new area blends in with the rest of the Park. Above all we hope that our visitors will appreciate a completely new attraction to the Park which will be included in the daily entry price.”

Head Keeper, Mark Kenward has been joined by his son Sam Kenward in working at Drusillas. Like his father, he has his heart set on a career with animals and hopes to secure a place at Plumpton College after completing his GCSEs next summer.

Over the next few months Sam will work as a volunteer alongside Mark to get a taste for life as a keeper, experiencing both the fun aspects as well as some of the harsher realities of the job too. As part of his duties, Sam has already donned his wellies to clear out the flamingo pond, scrubbed down the zoo kitchens, prepared the animal feeds and delivered some of their meals too. He hopes to learn as much as possible along the way to stand him in good stead for the future.

Mark commented: “Over the years I have come home with stories about my day at the zoo and I think that has inevitably fueled Sam’s ambition and passion for this line of work.”

Sam is certainly a chip off the old block; Mark himself started at Drusillas when he was just 15 years old on work experience and by the age of 16 he was working full time at Drusillas. Since then Mark has worked his way up through the ranks to the position of Head Keeper, overseeing the 106 different animal species and 18 members of staff in the zoo. Sam has high hopes to follow in his father’s footsteps.