Where can we see native animals?

Posted by New-Builder5245@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 47 comments

My family (two adults, two teens) are traveling from the US to London in late summer. We are spending a couple of days taking the train up to Edinburgh and back down and then a day in Oxford. We would love so see some local animals they don’t have in zoos here (European badgers, hedgehogs, ravens, etc.) is it worth taking an excursion from Oxford to St Tiggywinkles? Otherwise our plan is just punting and then walking around the campus. Or is there another place I am overlooking along/nearish our routes that might be better? One of the Wildwood parks maybe? We have 8 days total but do have them kind of packed.

[-]

Traditional-Man77691@reddit

You have RSPB nature reserves, or other nature reserves. You will see a lot of birds, and butterflies. I worked as volunteer on an RSPB Reserve , Minsmere, more wildlife tend to come out when the visitors have gone unfortunately, The otters would come out when the people had gone, still need luck to see something. I saw Marsh Harriers sky dancing, A barn owl. and snakes, but you get to know where to go when you work there and go when the visitors have gone home.

[-]

ComeHereUk@reddit

If you're flying into Gatwick then the British Wildlife Centre is nearby.

[-]

SlickPillock@reddit

You won't have much luck. I've only ever seen badgers as roadkill and I've seen about 3 hedgehogs in my 30 odd years. Ravens are a different story (I'm surprised you don't have them in America?). Tbh I can't say for sure if I've ever seen a Raven because all corvids are crows to me. I can tell the difference between any of them.

[-]

WillowCreekWanderer@reddit

You'd probably know if you saw a raven, they're huge compared to crows

[-]

SlickPillock@reddit

My autism forced me to look it up after I posted lol. Apparently there's over a million breeding pairs of carrion crows in the UK and only about 8000 pairs of ravens so definitely pretty rare

[-]

New-Builder5245@reddit (OP)

I stand corrected. There are ravens in America but very far from where I live in coastal Georgia.

[-]

WillowCreekWanderer@reddit

Nice!! In my area I mostly see jackdaws

[-]

New-Builder5245@reddit (OP)

That’s what I’ve heard. If you think “is that a raven or a crow?” It’s a crow. If you think “what is that giant bird???” It’s a raven

[-]

Unsure_Plant_Lover@reddit

I’ve lived in the UK for 30 years, hike outdoors every weekend and walk in the countryside after work every spring/summer that the daylight hours allow I’ve never seen a living badger, only road kill.

Lots of cool spots to see (and feed) highland cows, fallow and red deer I can recommend in north west (my local farm shop you can feed highland cows by hand for £1 for a box of veg)

Look for city farms or rescues etc for places that have found injured British wildlife being cared for prior to release

[-]

FireWhiskey5000@reddit

I’ve lived in the UK for 37 years and only ever seen dead badgers on the road. If you really want to try and see them you might want to look up the local wildlife trust (I think London is Herts and Middlesex and Oxford is Berks, Bucks and Oxon) then see if they have any events like badger feeding or reserves with hides to watch badgers (I’ve never seen it with badgers but I have been to Red Kite feeding).

Also there are a number of birds of prey centres knocking about.

[-]

spoo4brains@reddit

Badgers and Hedgehogs are nocturnal, so will be hard to see. If you are going to the Tower Of London they have Ravens there.

[-]

New-Builder5245@reddit (OP)

We are, thank you! I knew they had them but don’t know how easy they would be to view

[-]

North_Still_2234@reddit

Their wings are clipped. They're not going anywhere

[-]

buy_me_lozenges@reddit

They're literally all over the place, you'll see them anywhere on the grounds.

[-]

Straight-Link9389@reddit

They’re really easy to see. Sometimes you’ll see them just sitting around the Tower, other times they may be in their enclosures (which is also within the Tower of London grounds)

[-]

Sea-Possession-1208@reddit

Much easier than pretty much anywhere else in the country

[-]

Sea-Still5427@reddit

London is overrun with urban foxes. Take a walk around dusk and you'll see loads of them, especially in suburban London, but I've seen them in Marylebone too. It's not unusual to see 10-12 in an hour.

Here in East Anglia the foxes are shyer, but you can't go for a walk without seeing muntjac (often in families), hares, red kites and buzzards. In the town where I live we also have water voles and kingfishers, and not far away are otters, beavers, fallow and red deer. Badgers and hedgehogs come out at night, so they're harder to find.

Near here there's a shooting estate that, as well as game birds, has more wildfowl than I've ever seen in one place. As a result, there are kites and buzzards circling overhead constantly and an amazing number of bones and skulls than have recently been picked completely clean. Kind of gruesome but fascinating.

[-]

Astropoppet@reddit

If you go to Richmond or Bushy parks (outer London) you can see Roe deer. Hyde, Regent's and St James parks will have loads of different water birds, possibly even pelicans. You might see a fox early morning or dusk but rabbits, hedgehogs and badgers are much harder to find

Good luck with the weather ;0)

[-]

BandicootObjective32@reddit

When I went to Tiggywinkles it was a huge disappointment. It might have changed since but because it's an animal hospital, nearly all the animals are kept away from people while they're being rehabilitated so there's not much to see or do

[-]

New-Builder5245@reddit (OP)

Thank you! That’s what I really wanted to know. It would add a lot of extra travel and work so we’ll skip and just keep a look out for animals as we go.

[-]

BandicootObjective32@reddit

Might be worth trying a BBOWT nature reserve https://www.bbowt.org.uk/nature-reserves it might not be exactly the wildlife you're after but you might find something interesting! Or maybe the wetland centre in London.

The first time I saw a badger was in the Royal Crescent in Bath! They're rare but you never know when you'll bump into one. For hedgehogs, you're probably best off at my parents house - they always seem to have a couple. Maybe chatting to someone who seems like they have a decently sized garden is your best bet, or finding a London or Oxford wildlife Facebook group - there's always people keen to show you their badgers!

I totally get it, when we went to the US seeing the interesting birds and chipmunks were among the highlights, as well as seeing a skunk in Vermont.

[-]

Quiet-Rabbit-524@reddit

This is absolutely the best way to go from what I can gauge from your plans. You’ll certainly be able to spot some of our animals on your travels, smaller birds in particular. You might see deer from the window on the train, especially if you’re travelling in the early morning.

[-]

PipBin@reddit

You’ll be very unlikely to see badgers and hedgehogs in the wild. I lived rurally in my childhood and now live right on the edge of a park filled with wildlife. I’ve seen a live badger once in my life. Hedgehogs I personally have seen a few times but then I’m lucky with my garden. If you really want to see them then going to an animal sanctuary is your best bet.

[-]

WillowCreekWanderer@reddit

I only know one person who's ever seen a badger in the wild (at 2am in, oddly enough, the middle of Sheffield), and in 27-and-a-bit years I've only seen a wild hedgehog twice

[-]

acabxox@reddit

I only ever see them after they’ve been hit by a car :(

[-]

WillowCreekWanderer@reddit

Same ☹️

[-]

Tumeni1959@reddit

You have eight days, and one of them will be spent (4 hours each way) getting to and from Edinburgh, and another half to and from Oxford.

With the exception of the stretch between Berwick and Edinburgh, the London to Edinburgh route is not a scenic one.

European badgers are nocturnal creatures. It's difficult enough for specialised wildlife photographers to get a glimpse of them ... in over 50 years on this planet, the only badgers I have seen in real life have been dead ones at the side of the road, who were unfortunate enough to encounter a motorist. I've seen one wild hedgehog, and that was back in the 1970s.

[-]

gorroval@reddit

Just making sure you're aware that Oxford is a city university, right? It doesn't have a campus, the colleges and faculties are spread out across the whole city. If you ask for directions to "the campus", some wag will probably send you to Oxford Brookes.

(Apologies if this is obvious, but the number of times I was asked "Which way to the university?" on my way to lectures and I could only gesture vaguely around like "You're in it, mate!")

[-]

New-Builder5245@reddit (OP)

My husband has been there before so I am relying on him to plan that part but thank you for saving me the embarrassment of asking :)

[-]

Disastrous-Place-846@reddit

There is a place in north Yorkshire where you can see red squirrels

[-]

WillowCreekWanderer@reddit

Snaizeholme red squirrel trail!

[-]

mtmp40k@reddit

There’s a few places that have hides near badger sets that you can go to. Late night though

[-]

EnglishRose71@reddit

A couple of days to Edinburgh, including travel? You might need 3 days. Where in England will you be traveling from? There are tons of animal parks in England, I'm sure you'll get good recommendations

[-]

WillowCreekWanderer@reddit

I always enjoyed the walk up Oxford Canal to Port Meadow for spotting the local birds (mostly songbirds and more common water birds like ducks, but also the occasional kingfisher). You can also see red kites (birds of prey) flying over Oxford quite often.

They're not technically 'wildlife', but Magdalen college has a park full of deer (and the college grounds are nice to walk around in general if they're open for tours on the day you go)

[-]

Soggy_Detective_4737@reddit

Wildwood Kent might be worth checking out for you.

[-]

PootMcGroot@reddit

None of those animals will be in "normal" zoos - you'll have to go somewhere specialist, like St Tiggywinkles as you said.

Your best bet is walking somewhere rural at twilight.

/you'll see foxes everywhere.

//I've never seen a live badger anywhere, ever... just a few dead ones by rural roads.

[-]

Straight-Link9389@reddit

Beavers can be seen in Ealing https://theealingbeaverproject.com/

Deer can be seen in Richmond Park

[-]

Illustrious-Star1@reddit

You can see a lot of them here

https://britishwildlifecentre.co.uk/

They are not open everyday though and you may need to book.

[-]

girlsunderpressure@reddit

Your best bet for badgers is looking out for dead ones at the side of the road (dual carriageways outside of the city, near woodland) tbh. They're nocturnal and don't tend to frequent urban areas the way foxes do.

[-]

Quiet-Rabbit-524@reddit

Seeing wildlife is never a guarantee, and badgers/hedgehogs is an almost definite no since they’re nocturnal and fairly elusive at the best of times. Seconding a bird of prey centre - you can get up close to many British and European birds there.

[-]

Swimming-Lie5369@reddit

You wanna see native wildlife but you're spending your whole time plodding around cities?

Book a cottage in the countryside, go for a walk, and look around.

[-]

New-Builder5245@reddit (OP)

We want so see lots of things and we only have so much time

[-]

oscarx-ray@reddit

There are lots of fantastic bird centres all over the country where you can see owls and raptors.

[-]

AutoModerator@reddit

Please help keep AskUK welcoming!

When replying to submission/post please make genuine efforts to answer the question given. Please no jokes, judgements, etc. If a post is marked 'Serious Answers Only' you may receive a ban for violating this rule.
Don't be a dick to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
This is a strictly no-politics subreddit!

Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.