Hedge-veg and honesty pots: sense and sustainability

Jersey is a beautiful place to be during the summer, even better when getting around on two wheels. I’m fortunate enough to be staying just 10 minutes cycle from Durrell and throughout the journey on at least one side of the road is either arable land used for potato farming (Royals of course) or fields proudly containing the animals at the very beginning of the “Real Jersey ice cream” making process; the legendary jersey cows.

Local people not apparently involved in large scale farming like to make a bit of extra cash by selling small amounts of produce on the side of the road where they live, in an honesty-pot type of fashion where the customer is trusted to leave the price stated on the stall.

My journey to work takes me past several homes from which food is sold to passers-by for a fair price. One of these points on the route is less than 30 seconds from my front door and is owned by an old man who makes a few jams and preserves from things that he grows (I know because I asked), as well as bundles of rhubarb. I’ve bought four different jars so far, all open and stored in the smallest fridge on the island. It’s possible that I won’t even finish them all by the time I leave but I couldn’t simply walk past on my second visit and not try a jar of pear confit or quince jelly; which is sweet, syrupy and perfect on a Ryvita cracker.

The other houses/hedge-veg stalls that I pass sell a variety of other foods including Jersey Royals, eggs, peas, cucumbers and courgettes.

I am a huge fan of local produce, sustainability and minimising food miles wherever possible, therefore, the array of produce on offer as I go about my daily routine is very pleasing to see. No, the jam jars may not be sterilised properly; yes, the courgettes may be a bit bendy; and no, a box left outside in 31°C heat may not be the best way to store eggs, but I’d sooner eat all of the above rather than the supermarket equivalent. Why buy a giant Spanish courgette from Waitrose when an honest guy down the road is selling five small ones from his home for 60p?

Durrell too are in on the act of local trade and sustainability; second hand books are for sale which have been donated to the trust. An asking price of between 50p and £2 for books seems reasonable to me, which is why I have bought two already.

Also, on the recycling front, “Cans for Corridors” is a project that Durrell set up with the aim of providing trees to areas South America to connect isolated forests, that have been created by deforestation. In this initiative, the recycling company which collects aluminium cans from Durrell, has agreed to provide the cash for tree saplings (at a rate of around 1 sapling per 50 cans) to the Brazilian rainforest, in which the black lion tamarin is endemic and, sadly, endangered. Although this isn’t strictly local to one area, it is definitely worth a mention on here as recycling is such a big part of sustainability.

The reason why supporting for locally grown, small-scale produce is so important, is that it is sustainable, which is more than can be said for food that is flown around the world using fuel derived from oil. Food is grown using home-made compost and seeds from the previous harvest, eggs are laid by hens that are fed kitchen scraps and home-made jams and preserves are made in a simple way, usually using just fruit, water and sugar – which is widely grown in Britain.

Every penny spent in supporting the small-time suppliers of food is a penny well spent. Doing this connects people, builds relationships and creates trust within a community and I think this should be encouraged wherever possible.

I realise this post is distinctly lacking in the area of cute animal media compared to the previous three, so here are some uncategorised bits and bobs which hopefully appeal to others as much as they do to me.

Below, Asian short-clawed otters are enjoying their eagerly awaited breakfast

Below, a miniscule common toad found during one of many gardening tasks

Below, one of the pied tamarins of the free-ranging 'Tamarin Wood' making a swift exit after taking advantage of the hand rail

Below, a red squirrel - common on Jersey probably due to their American relatives never making the trip over

Going walkabout...

In some workplaces, especially large-scale set-ups like zoos, the departments in which one is not directly involved in seem like a world away, with knowledge in those areas tending to be limited to just the main facts that can be found by a quick internet search. In the zoo, to me anyway, this seems like a problem that is easily solved, so long as zoo personnel are willing to learn during their lunch break. During the course of a working day there is very little time to absorb even a small amount of the information the zoo has to offer due to the amount of work required to keep the place ticking over; cleaning, gardening, feeding etc. I try to spend at least a few lunch times a week wandering around, getting to know the other departments of the zoo, i.e. the animals, enclosures and educational information that they have to offer. A slight worry accompanies this notion though; walking around other sections is all well and good but when a visitor spots a person in a uniform very similar to that of a keeper, all of the questions that have been building up since their last zoo-employee encounter get offloaded.

There is only so much a student from the “Bats and marmosets” section can answer about the personalities and preferences of each individual orangutan before becoming unstuck and explaining that the answer isn’t available but can be acquired from a keeper of that department. I am therefore trying to learn a bit more about Durrell and its inhabitants, little by little. My walkabouts are made a lot more pleasurable by some creative enclosures, which ensure that every animal has numerous opportunities to express natural behaviours. It should also be said that every animal is also able to conceal itself from public view should it wish to, as this ensures privacy and a degree of safety to the animal.

The orangutan enclosure is a favourite enclosure of mine as it is extremely complex, in terms of structures within it, also it is enormous - they even have room to share it with two white-handed gibbons! The enclosure is full of telegraph poles, maybe totalling 30 in number, as well as yards and yards of rope and high-top platforms, one of which Dana, one of the recent mums, is very fond of. Full use is made of their enrichment items (e.g. large paper sacks) and the “Men of the forest” (Indonesian translation of orang-utan) often relocate from one area to another, to either chase the shade or another member of the group! The way in which they are looked after shows that the keepers at Durrell are as passionate about orangs as I am - which I am so glad about. I ran a half marathon in March for Orangutan Appeal UK, which is a small charity based in Hampshire that funds a rehabilitation centre in Sepilok, North Borneo, as well as projects in other areas. I was able to raise over £300 for the charity, thanks again to all of my generous sponsors!

The Asian short-clawed otters are another favourite to visit, they have a medium-sized enclosure but what is found inside is the important part. It contains all a family of otters could ever want, a waterfall, sloping grassy areas into the water and food delivered to their door every single day! The “romp” of otters, as they can be known, are often seen swimming, playing - both in the water and out, and investigating their enclosure.

The Chilean flamingos are beautiful birds and they are extremely sociable, hence why “stands” of them are often found in high densities in captivity. The flock at Durrell are just a stones-throw from the Greater flamingos and have access to a large part of an extremely slow flowing river. They prefer, however, to group in a shallow pool of water designed to replicate the type of area in which flamingos forage for their food using their highly specialised beak and accessory fimbrae which aid in sorting the minute aquatic beings from the water.

I am a third of the way through my 12 week placement now and I still have a lot to learn about the all the animals in the park, not least those kept in the section that I help to look after :) The country-wide heat wave is causing some areas of the bat tunnel to reach 34% humidity and 32°C; home-from-home for its full-time occupants, however, homo sapiens that grew up on the UK mainland are simply not equipped for the conditions in which a two hour cleaning routine must be carried out!

Lemur lake

As mentioned before, the animals at Durrell form a safety net population; should their genetic information ever be called upon, as well as being ambassadors for their species. An area of the world that is developing extremely fast and pushing several species to the brink of extinction is the poorest island in the world – Madagascar. This is an island which Gerald Durrell felt extremely passionate about. It is in such major trouble due to agricultural practices being forced upon the Malagasy people to provide more of the things that the richer parts of the world desperately crave such as cinnamon, cocoa and coffee. Lemurs are endemic to Madagascar, as are all terrestrial mammals found there and Durrell boasts six different species in its collection including the aye-aye. Lemurs form part of the suborder Strepsirhini (prosimians) within the order Primates and have evolved into an extremely diverse collection of species, each of which has very specific habitats and niches.

Lemur enclosures are spread throughout the park in three separate areas (four including the aye-ayes). All of the enclosure areas vary in size and contents, the design of each, carefully managed to replicate as best as possible the species’ wild habitat. The most impressive of all lemur areas in the park is “Lemur Lake”. Surrounding the lake are three groups of lemurs (one mixed) each with an exclusive portion of the lake side. Although a discreet electric fence prevents the animals from entering the water, the scene is reminiscent of one that might be found in a documentary in which lemurs are shown exploring their wild surroundings and generally living unrestricted lives.

The mixed group, whose territory spans one whole side of the lake, consists of two Black-and-White ruffed lemurs, one Red-fronted Brown lemur and seven Ring-tailed lemurs. The group has access to several trees, the tallest around 15-20m in height, of which, some are used for feeding via an attached rope-and-pulley system; delivering fruit high into the tree top.

It’s fantastic to see the lemurs make full use of the natural resources that are available to them, especially in this recent heat-wave. During my day off today I spent some time at the park watching the way the different animals behave over long periods of time, as well as how the public feel about the various exhibits and animals they see. Whilst watching the lemurs today, at some points it appeared to fellow observers that what they were seeing was an outdoor area which had been abandoned by its usual inhabitants. Only when the ruffle of leaves was seen and heard was the audience engaged. Simultaneously the black and white extremities that hung from the Ring-tailed lemurs suddenly became clear and the finger pointing began, with keen-eyed parents pointing out to their children the locations of the arboreal acrobats.

Environmental enrichment (EE) can be any process or item that an animal is exposed to, with the aim of encouraging natural behaviours whilst preventing boredom and stress. According to the zoo keepers I have been working with, visitors commonly ask what sort of EE programme the lemurs in this area of the park are in receipt of. The answer is that there is no structured EE plan other than a diet that varies on a daily basis. The reason for this is that the lemurs are kept in a fairly wild environment, regularly encountering plenty of wild animals such as moorhens, seagulls, rabbits and countless invertebrate species; not to mention the other species of lemur that share the enclosure. With all this activity going on it would be more difficult to switch off than it would be to remain active and engaged in these busy surroundings!

British wildlife a few inches away from the lens is no problem for my Samsung PL80. The sort of photography needed to capture certain environments such as this exhibit, on the other hand, is embarrassingly beyond the capabilities of my compact camera. The photos I’ve taken don’t do justice to how imaginative and complex the lemurs’ outdoor area is, however, they do show the scale of the area and how it engages the visitors, so much to the point that, in my opinion, they almost forget they are in a zoo. I believe that the large (in zoo terms) distance between animals and visitors becomes less of an issue when animals are seen behaving so naturally in their naturalistic habitat. The fact that there is no visual barrier, e.g. glass; mesh; netting, whatsoever between “us and them” must surely assist in reducing visitor frustration when trying to capture that perfect action-shot.

 I hope this exhibit is a shining example to other zoos; that both maximum animal welfare and visitor satisfaction can be achieved when an enclosure is really well thought through and animal welfare is at the top of the agenda. Too often zoos appear to be “animal collections”; cramming in as many species of mega-fauna as possible to better appeal to the public, rather than having a strong mission statement, which the zoo itself reflects. I have realised that an investment should really be made by zoos to provide the best possible enclosures for a select few species rather than mediocre facilities for several. We already know that better captive conditions, backed up by strong research, correlate with reproductive success and low aggression levels (to name just two), so why not listen to what the results are telling us? This is why I believe that Durrell is setting the benchmark for so many zoo practices; it looks at what the animals need and everything else comes second (…third, fourth, fifth etc).

Impressive interactions

Recently I signed up for a three month volunteer placement at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in Jersey. This quickly evolved into a combined volunteer placement and research project. Food prep/feeding and enclosure cleaning dominate each day with just an hour or so for other tasks around the park. My research project will be on three aye-ayes kept at the park and this data collection will take place in the final weeks of my placement. The aim of this blog is simply to describe and show how Durrell is really doing all it can to make the world a friendlier place for wild animals; at ground level this is achieved by educating visitors about the animals that it keeps and providing representations of their natural habitats, which encourage natural behaviours.

Well, where do I start? Perhaps with two of the four species of non-human ape which have the most luxurious semi-naturalistic enclosures I have ever seen? Perhaps with the three species of tamarins that roam free in their exclusive unenclosed woods? Perhaps even with the aye-ayes – the animals that I will learn so much about in the coming year?

In fact, none of the above, instead I will start by introducing to you the two species of fruit bat that are kept at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, namely the Livingstone's fruit bat and the Rodrigues fruit bat. The former can be found in the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean and is listed on the IUCN red list as endangered. The latter is endemic to Rodrigues; a single island also in the Indian Ocean and is listed as critically endangered – just one notch below being extinct in the wild.

The bats are housed in the conveniently named bat tunnel, which is constructed from all recycled materials; from unwanted plants and scraps of old astro-turf from a local hockey field, to off-cuts of wood and hundreds, if not thousands, of used car tyres. The methods that were employed and the materials that were utilised to build this enclosure demonstrate what can be achieved if sustainability is near the top of everyone’s agenda and recycling isn't thought of as being a modern fad that will fade away. Not only does the tunnel demonstrate that the sum of many recycled items is greater than each individual component, but it also shows that recycling can help save animal species in two ways; (1) it provides a safe home for the animals in captivity which provide a safety-net population if needed in any way; and (2) it shows that despite its size, no materials were drawn from the earth (wild habitats) for its construction and the materials that were used were not sent to a landfill to be put back into the earth! Everybody wins!

The tunnel simulates a tropical forest scene. It is comprised of a valley that runs the length of the enclosure (around 35 metres) and is just wide enough for a keeper to walk from one end to the other and feel the rush of wind flow from underneath the wings of the bats as the swoop (only just) overhead. The valley is about 1.5 metres below the other keeper-walking areas which run parallel on either side. These walkways are floored with strips of reclaimed astro-turf which is the perfect substrate for a floor which is constantly being messed, cleaned and kept harmful-bacteria-free. Separating the valley and the other walking areas are steep (40°) banks on either side made from the aforementioned recycled tyres and plants, which are watered daily. The walls of the tunnel are made from netting, attached to which are numerous food baskets and water stations. Draped throughout the tunnel are thick ropes, the type used for sports day tug-of-wars, which the bats enjoy clinging to whilst feeding!

The tunnel is kept extremely warm, averaging at a temperature around 27°C. It is important to maintain this temperature as the bats have bodily systems which are specially adapted to cope with the conditions. However, spending 1.5 hours each morning cleaning the floor and feeding apparatus is not a task undertaken lightly. The heat is generated by burning spare bits of wood from various projects around the park, which, I’m told has significantly reduced the energy bill of the mammal department.

Feeding takes place at 12.50 and around 17.00. To do this the feeder walks down the central valley, which encourages the bats to fly and walks back up each side of the tunnel in turn, placing food into the specially positioned baskets. Willow is occasionally used to supplement the normal diet and provide a form of enrichment.

Fruit bats have developed a technique of extracting as much usable content from food (energy, protein, etc.) without affecting their power-to-weight ratio too severely. After chewing a mouthful of food (either fruit and veg or special pellets) for a minute or two and all that can be obtained just through chewing has been obtained, a disc of mashed/chewed food is produced and released from the jaws of the bat.

Currently there are three babies still suckling from their mothers in the main tunnel, though it is very difficult to see them as they are often hidden under the cover of their mothers membranous appendages.

Separate to the tunnel is the bat hospital which is reserved for permanently injured or young bats. The injuries on the hospitalised bats range from an amputated thumb (the only one used to climb on the netting) to a completely missing foot which, if one hangs upside down, is not an advantage. Bats are unable to fly in the hospital as it is not long enough; this promotes recovery for the individuals wanting to be transferred into the main tunnel. Great enclosure in my opinion and the bats seem thoroughly happy with it too!

More updates to come on the fantastic animals and enclosures at Durrell in the coming weeks; this one, however, will be hard to beat.