CUTEY, CUTEY KUNEKUNE
They're all like a little miracle to me. I never get sick of seeing something newborn. Gail Simons
No matter how many newborn fluffballs she sees, each one is a miracle to Gail Simons.
The owner of Stoney Oaks Wildlife Park, a petting zoo in Kaimata, North Taranaki, has had an influx of babies in the last couple of weeks, from tiny mini lop-eared rabbits to nubian goats and deer.
‘‘They’re all like a little miracle to me,’’ she said. ‘‘I never get sick of seeing something newborn.’’
Her latest arrivals include Lani the red deer’s fawn and nubian goat kids, Amy, Marley and Mo.
‘‘You wouldn’t get a quieter deer,’’ Simons said of Lani. ‘‘You can cuddle her, you can do anything with her...yet every year her fawn has been the wildest.
‘‘You can’t go up to it and touch it or anything like that.’’
She said unless you adopt fawns almost from the moment they’re born, they became very high strung and attached to their mother.
‘‘If you take them off after a day they’re hard to get on a bottle.’’
The nubian goat kids, on the other hand, soon learn to accept humans, with their mothers, Anya and Mystic, being pets.
‘‘The mother rears them but they get nice and quiet because we’re handling them every day. The babies grow up with the public when they’re visiting.’’
The petting zoo has a large collection of animals from kune kune pigs, to chinchillas and possums, white peacocks and emus and sheep and llamas.
They also have a fairy bush walk, a tree house and a native timber collection.
The work keeps Gail and her husband Trevor busy, getting new arrivals all year round.
‘‘Holiday’s a dirty word; I’d love a holiday but there’s too many things to do,’’ she said.
Stoney Oaks is coming into the busiest part of the year, not just with babies but with extended opening hours from Boxing Day until the end of January.
‘‘I can’t imagine life without an animal. I do get over stocked at times,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s just a hobby that’s got out of control basically.’’