Baytree Owl and Wildlife Centre now hosts a range of native animals as well as the birds that its title suggests.
After being taken over 15 months ago, the centre has received a great deal of time and work to bring it back to life.
On the verge of closure in September 2013, new manager Mark Birdsall took it under his wing and brought in new plans to re-create the thriving tourist attraction it once was.
Now as well as the 85 owls in the collection, there are other bird of prey species including hawks, vultures and falcons.
In addition to this, native animals and birds have also been included. There is a captive bred fox, harvest mice, hedgehogs, a wildlife garden with a pond and frogs and not forgetting the latest native mammal, red squirrels.
“We have been waiting 12 months for this female to turn up. She is part of the studbook held by Welsh Mountain Zoo for the re-introduction of red squirrels back in to the UK.
“She has been loaned out to us to be paired up with a male from another collection, to hopefully produce youngsters that will be part of this mammoth conservational task of bringing red squirrels back in Great Britain”, said manager Mark.
“We have a lot of school groups visit the centre and I thought it would nice to add some of our native wildlife to the collection to incorporate these into the educational displays that we offer.
“From the Easter weekend through to the last weekend of September, we are going to be putting on a daily afternoon flying display for the general public, the cost of which will be included in the admission price.
“Visitors will get the chance to see three or four birds from the flying display team either in our new outdoor flying arena or if the weather is bad, in the indoor polytunnel.
“Over the coming couple of years we are hoping to add a native butterfly house and also bring in a pair of European otters to enhance the collection too.”
The centre also has a specially built incubator room, so for the next few months visitors can peer through the mirrored glass to see eggs in the incubator and chicks in the brooders from the numerous breeding pairs of owls they house.
Baytree Owl and Wildlife Centre is open daily from 10am to 4pm.
