Looking for love: mission to find partner for Mr Spencer

Animal conservation centre Wildlife Oasis in Milnthorpe is catching up after lockdown with a mission to collect two endangered species for their award-winning breeding programmes and hoping to find love for lonely monkey Mr Spencer.

First, it’s across the border to Scotland and to Edinburgh Zoo, to pick up a female cotton top tamarin. Due to raging deforestation in their native Colombia, the miniature monkeys are one of the most endangered species in the world. 

She will be introduced to ‘Mr Spencer’, the lonely heart in the zoo’s bachelor group.

With fewer than 6,000 left in the wild, captive breeding programmes are essential for their survival. As cotton tops prefer to live in family groups, keepers have worked hard building the soon-to-be Mr and Mrs Spencer their very own ‘couples retreat’.

From Edinburgh, the team will head to Camperdown Wildlife Park near Dundee, where they will collect two Scottish wildcats, Britain’s most endangered carnivore.

The Scottish wildcat is a completely separate species from the family cat and can be up to twice as big with long ringed tails.

Extinct in England and Wales, and critically endangered in Scotland, just a few hundred remain in the highlands.

Zoo manager Chris Lusby said: ''Endangered wildlife doesn’t always mean big or exotic, some British species are just as endangered, and just as stunning.

“After a tough eighteen months for everyone, being able to introduce and educate visitors close-up with endangered cotton tops and wildcats feels like a new, forward-looking chapter in the zoo’s ongoing legacy.

The Lakeland Wildlife Oasis is open every day.