Wild Bird Food And Accessories 10% Off

As part of our 10 year celebrations we have anothe 10% offer. ALL wild bird food, feeders and accessories are 10% off for the rest of this week.

Our wild bird food prices are very compettative normally so with this extra 10% off you can grab a real bargain. With the loss of a local competitor people have expected us to put prices up but we don’t work like that. We would rather welcome new customers with lower prices than they used to pay and reward our existing customers with continued good service and supermarket beating value.

So pop in and grab a wild bird food bargain, or replace that old damaged feeder or maybe get a bird table whilst you get an extra 10% off marked price. Check out the prices in our webstore. You can order to collect in store if you wish or just give us a ring on 01452501882. Don’t forget we have plenty of FREE parking on site and are conveniently situated on the main road out of Gloucester and on the no.10 bus route between Cheltenham and Gloucester.

The Angell Pets Team

Angell Pets involvement in overseas conservation

We take animal welfare seriously at Angell Pets We follow the top industry standards with our own animals and give our customers the best available advice and information so they can do the same. We also have contributed to animal conservation and welfare at other establishments and around the world. Our staff have worked on a projects locally with the Gloucester Wildlife Trust, across the UK, such as encouraging the re-introduction of otters to Birmingham and for the last few years at various locations around the world.

angell pets conservation

Africa Nature Reserve

George Angell (familiar in the shop to many of our customers) left the UK to help with work on Assumption and Aldabra for SIF (Seychelles Island Federation). Having worked on Rhino conservation in Africa during university, he was keen to get involved as soon as possible. Initially landing on Mahe – the main island in the Seychelles, George worked for a few months on supporting Black Parrot conservation. This work was a long term project, continuing after George left that was recently declared a success. He moved on from Mahe to the main focus of his work on the Seychelles controlled Atolls of Adabra and Assumption. These islands are so remote, even from the Seychelles islands themselves, that travel there is not possible all year round, so George contributed to the Mahe project whilst waiting for transport to be available.

 

angell pets conservation

Mahe

angell pets conservation

Mahe

Aldabra is a world heritage site and as such is an important and therefore protected environment. Invasive species of birds had made it at least as far as Assumption Island (40 km from the coral atoll of Aldabra) and an E.U. funded project was in place to remove these birds before they got to Aldabra (and to check how many may have already have got there and remove them).

George left to assist with the removal of these birds, helping to protect this important and unique habitat. He also did his own research for his dissertation toward his higher degree on the work he will be involved in.

Aldabra and Assumption are extremely remote islands in the middle of the Indian ocean. Situated  1100km south west from the main Seychelles Islands, Assumption is only 11 square kilometres. The only population are the scientists George is joining who go by boat to study Aldabra and support staff who maintain the landing strip. He was not be able to get there until October as travel is not possible from the Seychelles island of Mahe until then.

Below is an extract from the project brief outlining why the work was important and what it was trying to achieve and George’s part in it.

Under the European Commission’s (EC) Thematic Programme for Environment and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources, including Energy, the Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF) is implementing a 4-year project entitled “Mainstreaming the management of invasive alien species to preserve the ecological integrity and enhance the resilience of Seychelles World Heritage Sites” (‘the Action’) which started in February 2011. The overall objective of the Action is to develop and implement a strategic programme applying the ecosystem approach to limit the spread and reduce the impact of invasive alien species (IAS) in Seychelles’ World Heritage Sites (WHS). The Action is being coordinated and implemented by SIF, in partnership with the Seychelles Environment Department (ED) and National Parks Authority (SNPA), and with project associates Islands Development Company (IDC) and Island Conservation Society (ICS).

Under the project’s specific objectives, an eradication of avian IAS from Assumption of the Red-Whiskered Bulbul Pycnonotus jocosus and the Madagascar Fody, Foudia madagascariensis is underway. Until recently, Aldabra was thought to be the largest island in the world with no introduced avian species but in 2012 both the Assumption introduced species have been observed in the eastern part of Aldabra. These species have long been considered the most severe threat to Aldabra’s avifauna, making their eradication an immediate conservation priority. SIF is therefore running two parallel bird eradications on these adjacent islands. Due to the unexpected invasion on Aldabra , more staff are being recruited to help ensure the success of these eradications.

Georges specific role in this project was as follows.

1. Eradication of all introduced birds from Assumption and Aldabra

2. Improved understanding of avian IAS ecology on Assumption and Aldabra

3. Continued trial of alternative eradication methods for invasive avian species

4. Elimination of the threat of avian invasive species to Aldabra’s ecosystem and outstanding universal values

5. Recommendations for restoration of avian fauna on Assumption

George’ duties also included catching their own food (to quote the organiser – “hope you like fish and rice”) and there were lots of opportunities to see the local marine life (he had invested in prescription scuba goggles). Fortunately he didn’t get to see some of it too closely (sharks, venomous snails, fish etc.) and got to meet the famous Aldabran Giant Tortoise  very up close and personal. Assumption has an air strip that has to be cleared of tortoises before supply planes can land and so they are not all as friendly as those on Aldabra. George can vouch for that having been chased by “Terry” who’s head came up to Georges hip! He also made a trip across the island to an abandoned unfinished hotel where he had to construct barriers across the door ways to try to keep the robber crabs (giant land crabs) out of the gear – they steal everything!

angell pets conservation

Fishing for dinner on Assumption

This, as you can imagine, was a sort after placement and George had to interview and compete to get the post. We were very pleased to be involved in such a globally important project and wish the team still on the islands every success in their continued efforts to protect our environment.

After completing his term on the SIF projects George returned to the UK to complete his  honours degree gaining a first. During this period he worked in the shop at weekends, providing our customers with the benefit of his growing knowledge base.

On completion of his degree he again looked about for conservation work around the world. There were a number of competing projects looked at, from  the Antarctic to the Galapagos. In the end he opted for New Zealand.

angell pets conservation

New Zealand Office

New Zealand is a group of islands with an endemic population of flora and fauna This means the animals and plants of New Zealand are found there and no where else in the world.

angell pets conservation

Walking The Trails

As these species have evolved in isolation, they are vulnerable to the introduction of invasive competing or predatory species from outside the islands. Since man has reached the islands there has been a decline of endemic species, from the now extinct Moa (a large flightless bird, hunted to extinction by the newly arrived Maori people) to the endangered Kiwis and Kakapo (smaller flightless birds, brought close to extinction by predators introduced by European settlers to control the rats and mice they had already accidently introduced from their ships and initial supplies). George was to become involved in the control and/or eradication of some of these invaders, such as the Australian brush tailed Possum, the European stoat, ferret and weasel to name but a few.

angell pets conservation

Time Off

He spent three years working towards the stated aim of New Zealand to become predator free by 2050 (with a couple of months out to train vultures in Spain to fly with tourist on paragliders!) As a falconer, he also captured, trained and released two Autralasian Swamp Harriers during his stay, being amongst a mere handful of people in the world licensed to do this.

angell pets conservation

Vulture

After three years of this work George has returned to the UK where he is using his expertise to train upcoming animal carers, handlers and perhaps future conservationists at a college in Oxford. At the same time he is working for us back in the shop in Hucclecote on Saturdays where our customers can benefit from his knowledge and experience. We are very happy that Angell Pets staff are so involved in the promotion of animal welfare at such a range of levels, from giving advice on dog food to protecting some of the worlds most endangered species in the most hands on way possible.

angell pets conservation

Working Hard

angell pets conservation

Back Working In The Shop

So there it is. Just a little background on just one of the Angell Pets staff members. Perhaps I’ll do another log at some point on the relevant experience of the rest of us one day.

The Angell Pets Team

Angell Pets April Offers

Now we are back in a permanent base we have relaunched our wholesaler’s monthly offers scheme. We are cheaper than Pets at Home and Jolleys for most things anyway but these offers beat on line suppliers too. If you add on the savings you get with our customer loyalty scheme (effectively an additional 2.5% off everything you have bought) it make our prices even more attractive. With FREE car parking and friendly, knowledgable service, why go anywhere else? Don’t forget, if we don’t have what you normally buy in stock we can probably get it. We are a small, independant business and that means we can be extremely flexible with what we stock.

As a bonus for April, we have launched these offers early and they are avaiable in store and on line from today.


Iams adult

Iams Dog Adult Small/Medium Breed Chicken 12kg ONLY £25.99 RRP £30.99

Felix sensations

Felix Sensations Jellies Fish Selection 12x100g ONLY £3.75 RRP £5.19

Felix sensations jellies

Felix Sensations Jellies Meat Selection 12x100g ONLY £3.75 RRP £5.19

excel rabbit

Burgess Excel Natures Blend Rabbit Nugget 1.5kg ONLY £4.99 RRP £6.41

purina dentalife

Dentalife Small Sticks 21 Pack ONLY £2.25 RRP £3.75

Dentalife Medium Sticks 15 Pack ONLY £2.25 RRP £3.75

Dentalife Large Sticks 12 Pack ONLY £2.25 RRP £3.75

cesar mini joys

Cesar Mini Joys Dog Treats Cheese & Chicken ONLY £1.00 RRP £1.65

vitakraft kracker

Vitakraft Rabbit Sticks Wild Berry ONLY £1.99 RRP £2.73

Vitakraft Guinea Pig Sticks Fruit ONLY £1.99 RRP £2.73

Vitakraft Hamster Sticks Fruit ONLY £1.99 RRP £2.73

selective rabbit

Selective Rabbit Food 3kg ONLY £5.29 RRP £7.99

selective guinea pig

Selective Guinea Pig 3kg ONLY £5.99 RRP £8.99

sheba creamy snacks

Sheba Creamy Snacks Cat Treats Chicken ONLY £1.49 RRP £1.99

Sheba Creamy Snacks Cat Treats Salmon ONLY £1.49 RRP £1.99

Sheba Creamy Snacks Cat Treats Beef ONLY £1.49 RRP £1.99

kong liver paste

Kong Easy Treat Liver Paste ONLY £4.49 RRP £7.25

pigs ear strips

Pig Ear Strips 500g ONLY £4.99 RRP £6.55

johnsons fishys

Johnsons Fishys Dog Biscuits 150g ONLY £1.99 RRP £2.99

johnsons fishys

Johnsons Fishys Fish Chunks 150g ONLY £1.99 RRP £2.99

natures feast

Natures Feast Hedgehog Food 675g ONLY £1.99 RRP £2.99

halti training lead

Halti Training Lead Small ONLY £5.99 RRP £8.99

Halti Training Lead Large ONLY £7.49 RRP £10.99

These are just the wholeasler’s monthly offers. We have many other discount schemes of our own in store and on line running at the same time, such as our current Ezy Dog offer.

The Angell Pets Team

Beemat and Birdmat planted and ready to go.

Beemat and Birdmat planted on April 18th. I got home from work to find Henry had dug over the garden, dug in the compost, prepared the soil, laid the mats, covered them with compost and watered them in. So that’s all the hard work done. All I have to do now is water them and wait for nature to take its course.

Birdmat Beemat

I’ll be posting as the plants begin to show through and grow and we can see if the manufacturer’s claims about germination rates for the Birdmat and Beemat are true. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some shots of the birds and the bees feeding when the plants are mature.

 

Richard Angell

Pet shop Gloucester July offers

Pet shop Gloucester summer offers in store now. Pop in to our pet shop Gloucester to get one of these fantastic bargains, many at below supermarket prices.

Pet shop Gloucester offers July 2013

pet shop gloucesterKeep up to date with all our offers and register on our pet shop Gloucester email list and get an extra 10% discount.

The Angell Pets Team

What our George did in Africa this year

George went to South Africa with his university in April this year. SInce he got back a lot of customers have asked what he was doing out there. Below is his presentation on the study trip. He did a lot of other “fun” stuff like visit a cheetah sanctuary but this was the “work” part of the trip.  His presentation was on the rationale of burning regimes on the reserve of Mankwe: why burning is done, why it is effective, what it acheives etc.

Does the time of day affect the diversity of grazing species across different burn years?

pet shop gloucester rhino

Figure 1: Male white rhinoceros (Angell, 2013)

 

Prescribed burning is a method used by game ranches to manage their grassland. Burning disposes of dead grass as shown in a study by Trollope in 2004 where it is proven that burning is an effective way of removing unacceptable grass material and controlling/preventing the encroachment of undesirable plants.

Burning regimes and large mammal populations can affect the carrying capacity of a reserve. The carrying capacity is defined by Bothma, 1989 as the maximum population of animals an area can support without deterioration to the habitat. A study by Bird et al, 2005 shows that good burning regimes will affect the veld condition and thus the utilisation of the veld by the animals. A veld is an area of grassland in Africa and is another name for a field. If the veld is poorly managed then the animals will begin to overgraze areas which leads to a lack of resources, and, in turn lowers the carrying capacity.

pet shop gloucester zebra

Figure 2: Zebras, Bulk grazers. Le Breton 2013

 

A game reserve will need to be able to accurately estimate the numbers of animals within the reserve to determine whether carrying capacity is exceeded or not. To do this line transects can be used to estimate the population within the area. Strip transects may also be used however these tend to have more observer bias than line transects according to (Ogutu, 2005).

angell pet warthog

Figure 4: Warthog, Specialist feeders. Le Breton 2013

 

MacTavish, 2013 stated that animals that have the greatest effect on carrying capacity are the grazers, this is because they can cause overgrazing leading to soil erosion and bush encroachment.  He also stated that there are three main types of grazers found on game reserves and these are bulk grazers (species like white rhino, wildebeest, and zebra), mixed feeders (species such as impala and eland) and specialised feeders (species such as reedbuck and warthog). Other large mammals such as kudu will fall into the strict browsers category.

angell pet kudu

Figure 5: Kudu, Strict Browser. Le Breton 2013

 

Therefore to evaluate the carrying capacity and predict the areas of overgrazing due to population movements, large mammal line transects should be used. Driven transects differ from walked transects as the cover much more ground in the same period of time.

Rationale

This study will enable game ranches to better determine how the time of day effects the grazing patterns of the animals within it.  An animal’s location can be manipulated through the burning regime as shown by a study by Bird et al (2005), however a study by Delagarde et al in (2000) showed that time of day may affect this further due to the plants composition of soluble carbohydrates.

A study by Archibald et al in (2005) shows that grazing species move towards recently burned areas and their abundance is between 2 and 6 times more than that of their control areas. They also show that other areas are also consequently not grazed, which gives these areas a resting period. This allows burning regimes to be designed to maximise carrying capacity by limit overgrazing and the damage to the habitat. It also helps reserves better understand where the next over grazed area may be, as supported by Trollope, 1990.

Bothma, 1989 states that burning regimes are necessary as the smaller the area being used for wildlife, the more intensively it must be managed. Trollope, 1990 supports this by saying natural rotational grazing, for example migrations, cannot occur due to the areas being too small. Therefore using techniques such as grass surveys alongside techniques like those carried out in this study, the effectiveness of burning regimes can be assessed and improved by understanding the animals utilisation of areas.

Understanding the utilisation of grassland depending on time of day will help game ranches better manage the manipulation of population location, whether it be for anti poaching methods, resting areas of veld or to better increase the nutritional value of the veld within the reserve and in turn improving carrying capacity. It is possible that there is a higher diversity of animals on the newer burns in the evening to take advantage of the fresh vegetation of new burns and high sugar contents within the grasses as suggested by Delegrade, 2000.

Methodology

Firstly the transect routes were selected.

Transect 1 took place on the 17th April at 4:50pm-6:15pm. It started at the North end of Zebra drive and came South to join up with centre road to then follow zebra drive back North. The second half of the transect then started at the North end of Eland drive and drove South until we met Kgokong road.

Transect 1 differs from transect 2 3 and 4 as the 2010 burn section from the north end of eland drive, coming south was all thicket so it was difficult to spot wildlife. Also the first section of the transect meant driving back on Zebra drive meaning that the wildlife could have been scared away on our first pass or double counted.

pet shop Gloucester Tsessebe

Tsessebe Le-Breton, 2013

 

Transect 2 started at 7:17 am and finished at 9:20am. It started on the East side of centre road and then met Zebra drive and headed North to meet perimeter road.  The second section started at the north end of the east perimeter road and headed south until we met the 2012 burn. Transect 3 followed the same route but started at $:09pm and ended at 6:01pm.

Pet shop Gloucester Hartebeest

Hartebeest Le Breton 2013

 

Transect 4 was the same route as transect 2 and 3 however it was carried out in reverse. It started at 7:17am and finished at 9:09am. It was carried out in reverse to be able to get a better representation of results. This is because animals that may have been present on the burn for example here on the 2010 at the start of the transect but were not actually seen when recording took place.

 

pet shop gloucester Wildebeest

Wildebeest Le Breton 2013

One scribe was present to record the data and four spotters were present. However group numbers changed between drives meaning more spotters were sometimes present. There was also a driver who also acted as a spotter along with a member of staff, both of which changed between drives 1-2 and 3-4. All spotters used binoculars to identify the animals.

pet shop Gloucester Eland

Eland Le Breton 2013

 

Once the selected route was reached the odometer reading on the car was reset and a start GPS co-ordinate was taken. The selected route was then driven, when an animal was spotted the vehicle was stopped and recordings were taken. Recordings included the odometer reading along the transect, the angle the animals were from the transect line (this was measured using a compass), the distance they were from the vehicle (measured using a rangefinder), the number of individuals and the species present (The species we were recording we all those who have an effect on the carrying capacity, so that is all the types of feeders mentioned previously, along with ostriches although they are not mammals they also graze and effect the veld condition), the time they were observed (to the nearest minute) and the burn year they were observed in.

The total distance travelled on each burn was recorded for each transect to standardise the distance travelled. Any animals spotted after 3km on any burn were not counted, this is due to 3km being the limiting distance on the 2009 burn.

The data that is collected will be analysed using Simpsons index to measure the diversity in each burn on each transect.

Results

Our results from each transect were put into tables to be able to analyse the diversity of each burn.

Results tables page 2

pet shop gloucester results 1

pet shop results 2

The Simpsons Index was calculated and the tables were used to create graphs to better present the data

 

Simpsons index chart

This bar chart compares the Simpsons index of all burn years across all transects. Drive 1 and 3 took place in the afternoons and drive 2 and 4 took place in the mornings. Results show that generally areas are more diverse in the mornings and that on average the 2012 burn was more diverse than any other burn. No data was collected on drive 1 for 2010 burn as this was the thicket patch where no animals could be observed which would indicate why 2010 appears to have the lowest diversity overall.  It could be argued that these results show that time of day does affect species diversity and that the newer burns are of preference.

pet shop gloucester simpsons

 

Discussion

My results show that time of day does affect species diversity across different burn years with the highest diversity being in the morning. This is opposite to what was expected as it was hypothesised that there was to be more diversity in the evening when the grass has the higher soluble carbohydrate level. However a study by Watts and Pollitt, 2010 has shown that almost all of the African grasses tend to be higher in sugars and starches than other grasses from across the world. Therefore it could be argued that due to the naturally higher sugar levels in African grasses, the grazing animals do not need the extra sugar found in the evenings so graze in the mornings to eat before the competition eats all the grass.

The 2012 burn has the highest diversity on average and on each morning drive it was the highest. This supports the research by Bird et al, 2005 and Archibald et al 2005 showing that animals prefer the newer burn years due to the newer more palatable grass. It was to be expected that 2010 would have the next highest diversity as after having a year to rest while new pasture was grazed following it being burnt, it would have palatable grasses for grazers, however due to the limitation of the thicket in 2010 burn on transect 1 this could not be concluded.

Certain species abundance in burn years differed with time of day. It can be noted that higher numbers of wildebeest and impala were found in 2012 burn in the morning and 2009 burn in the evenings. It can be argued that these animals eat the easier to digest more palatable grasses in the morning to beat competition and go on to eat the more lignified grasses in the evening when competition dies down and the gut is more metabolically active.

Limitations

During transect 1 and 2 the weather was warm and dry with minimal cloud cover, however transect 3 was overcast and cooler while transect 4 was after a night of heavy rain and was still very overcast. This may have affected the animals grazing strategies as the grass could have been more palatable while it was wet.

During transect 3 more spotters were on the vehicle which means that animals that may not have been normally spotted could have been counted. Also transect 1 and 2 had a different member of staff and driver present to transect 3 and 4. A total of 252 animals were seen on transect 1 and 2 whereas a total of 413 animals were seen on transect 3 and 4. This could be down to the difference in driving speeds, transect routes, spotters present or weather change.

Conclusion

In conclusion, burning is an essential method to small game reserves as a way of controlling dead, undesirable plant material within the reserve. It is important as it increases the quality of the veld and improves the digestibility of the grass to species such as zebra, wildebeest, impala and warthog. Good veld management will help increase the carrying capacity by better improving nutrition and reducing overgrazing. Measuring carrying capacity is imperative as it ensures the reserve is not keeping animals at the detriment to the habitat.

Time of day does have an effect on species diversity within different burn years, with the morning having the highest diversity. It can be argued that this is down to competition between species for the more palatable grasses as the newest burn was also the most diverse.

pet shop Gloucester ostrich

Impala and Ostrich. Angell 2013

George is off again in just over a weeks to the Seychelles and Aldabra/Assumption to work on a conservation project for a year. We will post  on the outline of this project soon.

 

The Angell Pets Team

Angell Pets goes to Africa

We pride ourselves here at Angell Pets with the high level of qualification and experience of our staff. As part of his ongoing development George is off to Africa today to study for two weeks at the Mankwe game reserve.

This reserve is in the northwest province of South Africa and boasts such magnificent animals as the white rhino, giraffe, zebra, a host of antelope and gazelle species such as the springbok,blesbok and impala, leopards, servals, brown hyenas and jackals amongst many. It also has its fair share of  species that are not always so welcome. Last year apparently a spitting cobra was found in the camp (reputedly in a sleeping bag although that may just be the legend growing!). George has taken a black light to check his bedding at night and his shoes in the morning for scorpions. No doubt he will be spending quite a bit of time looking for spider burrows to further his knowledge of these in the wild.

This is a real opportunity for our staff, myself included to extend our knowledge of the animals we sell as several species of captive bred animals that we have or have had in stock originate from this region. Species such as the African brown house Pet shop Gloucestersnake, leopard tortoise, multimammate mice (called rats in Africa), cut throat finch, and the yellow canary. They also have a large variety of birds of prey so George will be in his element.

So good luck to George in the first of his travels this year and we will keep you informed of further opportunities for extending our knowledge later in the year when he is off again to another part of the world.

 

The Angell Pets Team (temporarily -1)