Tanar Tigers & Bear

“While Glen Tanar is a lovely place to relax and enjoy the countryside its also a working estate and one of the things we are always keen to do is to educate people on how the estate’s ecology and economy work together. To do this end we recently held an event for children from Aboyne Primary School which was all about deer management. This event was designed to show why deer are managed, what value they bring and what impacts they can have as well as enjoying deer for the fabulous animals they are. Kids played games to simulate stalking and to find out about the resources deer need to thrive. In the spirit of Jamie Oliver we looked at deer as food, what they look like inside and how we butcher a carcase. Most children are very open to this once you have got past a few understandable “ughs!” One wee lad came up to me later and confided gleefully “I just touched some lungs!” “Good on ya” I said.

However when you dress up 72 children as Environmental Health Inspectors and get them to examine carcases you can hardly expect to sell the same carcases afterwards. It’s a shame to throw away good food so we decided to be more creative. The Polar Bear, Mercedes at the Highland Wildlife Park in Kincraig is the only one in the UK and she is one of Scotland’s treasures. She also has a liking for venison. I had visions of a blog entry featuring a photo of Mercedes eating Glen Tanar venison under the headline “I know I have had a hard winter but this is ridiculous”. However when the meat arrived she left her huge open enclosure and retired behind bars to enjoy her meal. It didn’t make for a good photo at all but as you can see the Amur Tigers were much more obliging.”

Colin McClean, Wildlife Manager

Wildlife Park Polar Bear