Wildlife centres join forces (From Southend Standard)

Wildlife centres join forces

7:00am Wednesday 6th March 2013 in Echo News

THEY both take care of some weird and wonderful creatures, but now two wildlife centres have joined forces.

Southend Sea Life Adventure has teamed up with Great Wakering-based Dangerous Wild Animal Rescue Facility (DWARF) which rehomes animals whose owners can no longer cope with them in a domestic environment.

Iain Newby, from DWARF, is now more than happy to hand over aquatic creatures like softshell turtles, African clawed frogs and shark catfish, so the seafront centre can care for them.

He said: “One of our main aims is education.

“A lot of these animals wouldn’t be in this position if there was better education about them - such as how big they will grow. A baby python might be 1ft long but grow to 20ft. Sea Life has good education facilities and that’s what we strive for.”

Lucy Hodge, Manager of Sea Life said: “Nearly all the creatures from our Scale Trail came to us via DWARF and a lot of the turtles in Turtle Bay, plus some of the fish in the crocodile and tall tanks.

“We’ve now extended our relationship and become a key rehoming partner for several of the species DWARF comes into contact with.”