Guess who's back...

Hey Steemians!

It’s been such a long time, 8 months in fact, since I was last here. I haven’t forgotten any of you, my amazing followers, and most I have managed to keep in contact with on Discord. It’s been quite a journey but I will bring back my Amazing Animals and Endangered Species series with the hope of educating you in the world of animal conservation, something that holds very dear to my heart.

I have now finished my Zoological degree which is such a huge relief and one of the main reasons behind my break (as well as other things) to devote all my spare time into my dissertation. I am so proud to say that I got a first on this and also quite a significant amount of recognition in the zoo community. I am in the midst of sharing this information with other zoological institutions to improve their care and husbandry of Rainbow Lorikeet birds.

For those who know me well they also know Basil well too and he is doing okay. Sadly we lost his brother and closest companion recently but thankfully he is coping well (we have 18 in the herd so he still has company). It just means that he has become increasingly clingy to me, more so than I would like. He will be okay, he just needs to find his feet again. Animals grieve just like we do, it’s all a healing process and he has as much scratches and cuddles as he wants from me. Luckily this loss has not impacted his training and it is still going well, he now opens his mouth on command and I’m hoping to bring some other behaviours such as more direct foot presentations.

I am now back horse riding after a 2-and-a-half-year break. Back in July of this year I had another accident at work where I fell off a tractor (none of our injuries are done by animals really) so it set back my recovery from my back injury quite some time. Though I have been back in the saddle for about 4 weeks now and its so thrilling, exciting and above all- normal.

The bunnies are doing well. We originally only had Harvey and Herbie but we then found a lovely little grey female in an adoption centre and called her Heather. She bonded with the boys really well and easily. A few months later someone was sadly trying to get rid of their bunny and we took pity on her, her name was Diamond, but we changed it to Hazel. Unfortunately she didn’t bond well, and we ended up with a trio and a single bunny, thus introducing Hector. Hector lived on a balcony in the city of London his whole life, alone and never met another bunny just like Hazel.

They were the ideal match and now live quite happily, it’s actually quite cute to watch as neither of them possess any bunny social skills. Rabbits are truly nasty creatures to one another, so bonding is really tough on both the owner and on the rabbits themselves. Now we have two groups they are all doing well so we are happy to leave them as they are.

The reindeer are back at the Zoo and Ronnie is looking incredibly fabulous, the antlers have grown back so well and only took 4 months in total to get to the size they are at!

I look forward to reigniting my animal series and bringing you some of the worlds most amazing creatures in great detail!

Catch you soon!