Twin kids at Surrey Wildlife Trust
Photo credit: Jo Saunders
New kids on the block!
Surrey Wildlife Trust (SWT) Grazing Team are celebrating the arrival of their first twin kid goats of the season, and are asking members of the public for name suggestions starting with the letter ‘D’.
“The twins were born on a lovely afternoon last weekend" said SWT Ranger Jo Saunders. "Within minutes, both were up on their feet and enjoying their first feed from mum. Female goats have the impressive ability to choose on which day to give birth. Warm, sunny days give the newborns the best chance of a healthy start in life.”
"Cute!" we hear you squeal and, well, yes; they are very sweet. But as well as making us all go "aww", these kids have an important job to do. They form part of an expanding herd of ‘Traditional British’ goats, who help SWT to provide a long term sustainable grazing solution to threatened heathland and chalk grassland sites across the county.
During the summer the goats control invasive scrub on Wisley Common (one of the Trust’s premier heathland reserves), happily munching through the tough plants that would choke less vigorous species. Heathland is a very important habitat which supports rare species of plants and animals, such as orchids, Dartford warblers and nightjars.
In the winter a small band of the goats travel to Betchworth Quarry to carry out similar work on a chalk grassland reserve.
So be thankful - these little guys are on hand to help keep our local countryside looking lovely.
Send in your name suggestions via Surrey Wildlife Trust’s Facebook or Twitter accounts: Twitter.com/SurreyWT or Facebook.com/SurreyWT.
