Red Pandas

Let me start off by saying a BIG HELLO to everyone at New Longton All Saints C.E. Primary School... I can't wait to meet you all. And also a Big Hello to Jasper - our Red Panda who we visited last week.

Since before Christmas, I've been busy working on a series of non-fiction books for one of my publishers - Franklin Watts (and lovely people they are too). I've written the first three books and am a good way through book four. I'm also busy researching the next four books which will be about Tim Berners-Lee, William Caxton, and the artists L.S. Lowry and Pieter Bruegel. I'm really enjoying writing the stories and it's fantastic seeing them being brought to life by the wonderful artwork. Right now I'm waiting to see the final colour artwork for Christopher Columbus and the rough artwork for Neil Armstrong. So far they are looking great.

As well as writing it's important to get out and about every now and then to see things in the real world... a good way of getting ideas for new books. Last week Vicky and I went to visit Chester Zoo to see Jasper, the red panda that I adopted for her last birthday. I'm sure that nobody else calls him Jasper but we thought it was a good name for a red panda, so that's what we decided to name him. Of course, when you adopt an animal at the zoo you can't actually bring them home with you  (probably a good job really as I'm sure that Polly, our cat, wouldn't be too happy) but you do get a nice adoption pack through the post and your name on a plaque by the animal's area.

We wanted to go back to the zoo on a nice, quiet day so we would have lots of time to spend looking at the animals - and especially the red pandas - without crowds of other people around. Apart from it being f-f-f-freezing, it was a perfect day. When we arrived at the Red Panda area, they were all curled up in the branches of the trees snoozing but when we came back round later, they were wide awake and wandering around as you can see in the picture above.

As well as seeing the red pandas wandering around, we also managed to catch the Two-Toed Sloth, also wide awake for a change...

It's good to be able to spend time looking at some of the more unusual birds and animals too, instead of spending all the time peering at the lions, tigers and elephants. The Pelicans were enjoying a good wash as you can see here - and at the bottom of the page you can see a picture of an African Grey Crowned Crane...

 

This crane shared an area with the pelicans and a few other birds. They have quite a large area to walk around in but as we walked around the outside, this crane followed us all the way. We couldn't make up our mind whether it liked us or wanted to chase us. 

 

 

Chester Zoo

On Saturday Vicky, Connor, Rachel, Chris, Laura, Deanna and I we went to visit Chester Zoo. If you have never been there before then you really should go - if you have been before then you should probably go again... so much will have changed.

Zoos have had lots of negative press over the years but things aren't always what you might think. Zoos, and especially Chester Zoo, play a vital part in animal care and conservation. It's always a little disturbing to find that the animal you are looking at is one of a small number left alive in the world - and awful when you read that there are non left in the wild at all. For us this certainly brings home the importance of zoos as they are able to look after and help conserve the wildlife of the world as well as playing a vital role in reintroducing the animals back into the wild... Click HERE to visit the Chester Zoo website to find out more about their conservation work... 

The weather forecast for Saturday wasn't great so we packed our waterproof coats. Fortunately I never had to put mine on as the only rain we got was a brief drizzle.

Chester Zoo has changed a great deal since we visited last year. You can now stop by to visit the gift shop and see the elephants before even entering the zoo properly. The Elephants have quite a large area to wander round in and it was wonderful to see the baby elephants with their mothers. The baby elephants were very popular with the other visitors - and why not - they are very cute... I couldn't help thinking that this little guy was laughing his socks off at something...

 

As well as Lions, Tigers, Penguins and Zebras that you might expect to find in a zoo, Chester has lots of other interesting animals to see and they are working hard to put these animals in locations that match their natural habitats - like these African Painted Dogs.

 

And to prove it once and for all - Giles Andrea was right - Giraffe's really can't dance ...

 

 

We love the space that the creatures have at Chester Zoo and we love the way they are continually developing the zoo to make it more animal friendly and more varied and interesting for the visitor...

 



Of all the creatures there though - our favourites are the Red Pandas... often sound asleep and hard to see but on Saturday they were roaming around the trees, wandering through the grass and playing in the waterfalls... A cross between a cat and a fox and something else the Red Pandas are definitely the cutest creatures ever. Just look at that tail...