You may be thinking what Animals do our students have the opportunities to work with to enhance their knowledge and skills within their chosen subject area? Well, we are going to give you an insight into the wonderful animals we have from the slimy to the furry and big to the small!
Within our fisheries department we have the Clarias gariepinus, also known as the African walking catfish, exists in the wild but it is also cultivated in ponds, cages, and pens and is of great commercial importance.
An aggressive predator with rapid growth, wide habitat preferences, tolerance to extreme water conditions and the ability to subsist on a wide variety of prey make the African walking Catfish a successful survivor.
The species rapid growth, wide habitat preferences, tolerance to extreme water conditions make it a very suitable species for farming in Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) – it is believed more than one million tonnes of this fish are produced each year.
Hadlow first obtained these fish back in 2016. We had to import them from Belgium and have them flown across to England. Then we had to retrieve them from customs at Heathrow airport. Our fisheries management students learn how to care, clean, feed and breed these impressive fish.
As you can imagine our Animal Management department have a variety of different animals and we would be here all day listing them all! Here, are a few of our picks:
Ned, our alpaca lives with his best friend Fig. His favourite activity is playing in the sprinkler in hot weather – do you blame him? They are very domesticated animals, and the two alpacas are waiting on the arrival of two new friends!
Our laughing Kookaburra. He is 11 years old, and he loves fish! They are native to Australia and Eugene was born in the UK and hatched from Banham Zoo. He is currently being trained by the animal unit team to build up his flying ability. We must wear a hard hat to keep our heads safe as he has a sharp beak!
Our two miniature Shetland ponies, Ria and Ruby who are 12 and 13 years old. They can be very cheeky sometimes especially with their strong personalities. They love being out in the sunshine but can only be outside for short periods as too much grass will make them sick.
Baldrick and Newton are our Common Marmosets. They are from the south American rainforest. These two are brothers that were housed previously at Five Sisters Zoo.
Last but not least, Pumpkin. It’s believed he was a refugee from Rumania, and he has a sister called Jigsaw. Pumpkin visits many places around the Hadlow Campus including classrooms, offices and even the school. One of the pupils informed us that Pumpkin wonders in and out of all the has become a therapy cat to some pupils!
Pumpkin now tends to spend most of his day somewhere within the Garden Centre, either asleep amongst the house plants or in the office area looking for food! Pumpkin is a very sociable loving cat but sometimes wakes up on the wrong side of the bed.
If your ever at Hadlow do not forget to look out for our wonderful animals and say hello! To find out more about the courses we offer at Hadlow, check out our website here.