Animals...
What is an animal?
Animals come in all shapes and sizes and are found all over the world - from the frozen ice of the Arctic and Antarctic through to the searing heat of the deserts. Wherever you look, there is an animal of some sort, shape and size.
When you look more closely at an animal, we then notice some differences and similarities which enable us to define the animal accurately - this is called classification.
Our expertise...
We have a wide selection of animals under our care, we are experts in their welfare and development, at AnimalMan Ltd we are always delighted to see new additions to our menagerie.
More about our animals...
If you want to find out more about the various species of animal that AnimalMan Ltd present at an experience, then hover over the 
menu in the top left hand corner of the page and click on the individual name of the animal.
Some feature footage to help you and your children understand more. Check out the Corn Snake, Frog and Millipede for the latest videos.
There is a glossary on the right hand side of the page to explain some of the words or terms used in the write-ups. If you want to check a definition, just click on the word.
Babies and births...
So lets take a look at some of our new additions in 2007 and see what we notice.
Recently an animal hatched on dry land which was part of a cluster of eggs. The animal requires heat, light and actively seeks insects and plant matter as its diet...
With all this information we would be able to accurately guess that this animal was a reptile (laid eggs on land) - the hatchling is an omnivore (eats meat and plant matter).
With a closer inspection, we would be able to determine that the animal has a backbone - so is a vertebrate. It is a ectotherm (cold-blooded) - has rough scaly skin and 4 legs.
With this information we know it is a lizard in the class of reptilia.
Here's another example...
Here is an animal who was born live, has fur all over its body.
We can determine that this animal also has a backbone, but seems able to regulate its own body temperature - endotherm. This must be a mammal and we can then accurately guess this is a rodent as they have long incisor teeth, a characteristic prevalent in rodents.
And another...
This animal had lots of live babies and they all climbed up onto her back. She has 8 true legs and 2 Palps (claws) and an exoskeleton (external skeleton).
We can determine that this animal must be an invertebrate - animal without a backbone - its body is in segments which means that she is an arthropod. All these signs enable us to determine she is part of a class of animals called arachnid.
These are several examples of the births from this year.
On Thursday 8th November, one of our female hedgehogs gave birth. We have had to wait as any disturbance may cause distress to the Mother and her hoglets, but we are delighted to be able to show you some footage shot this evening (30/11/07) via web cams in their nest. Please excuse the quality of the footage as we have to work in low light levels to protect the hoglets.