Badger emerging from behind a tree
Animals,  England,  Nature Photo Challenge,  Video

Video: more cuteness overload

September 15, 2023 / 25 Comments

Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That’s the problem.

A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Given that few of us are blessed with the language skills of Doctor Dolittle, probably the best way to ‘listen’ to animals is to observe them. And for many of us that often means a visit to a (hopefully) ethically-run wildlife sanctuary. There we can really take our time to watch animal behaviour, and listen to the experts who’ve made it their job to get to know and understand the needs of these creatures.

That was our experience on our recent visit to the British Wildlife Centre. There the animals are well-housed in large enclosures. And, helped by the fact that they are all native, those enclosures mimic almost exactly the environments in which they live in the wild. The keepers we met clearly had a great rapport with their charges and understood their needs; knew how to ‘listen’ to them in fact. All in our small group will have learned a lot from them about the animals’ natural behaviours and the threats many of them face.

Animals on the move

I rarely shoot video as on the whole I prefer still photography. Perhaps because I only dabble a little with video editing, I find it less creative and less fun. But some things just call out for movement, and animals are among them. So on that visit I did take a little time out from shooting hundreds of stills to grab just a few videos of some of the cutest animals. And as everyone enjoyed that previous post so much I thought I would share them in this follow-up, which again I’m linking to Denzil’s Nature Photo challenge.

Note: I have cheated with the audio on these videos as I didn’t think you’d want to listen to a load of cameras clicking and occasional planes from Gatwick flying overhead! So what you hear will be stock library ‘forest’ sounds that I used to replace the originals.

Red squirrels

Badger

Otter

Fox

I visited the British Wildlife Centre in September 2023

25 Comments

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