The new managers of a long-standing Aberdeenshire wildlife rescue centre say they’re now settled in, two months after moving to the north-east.
Paul Reynolds and Morgane Ristic officially took the reins of The New Arc north of Ellon just before Christmas, and over the past few months have been getting used to life saving animals in rural Scotland.
The couple, who have worked in wildlife rescue all over the world from Ethiopia, to Costa Rica, to Cornwall, says they have been “overwhelmed by the kindness of locals” in the north-east.
Morgane and Paul have big shoes to fill at New Arc
The wildlife-loving couple have taken over the running of The New Arc from Pauline and Keith Marley, who founded the facility in 2006 and ran it tirelessly for 16 years.
Pauline and Keith have now stepped back, but are helping their successors Morgane and Paul through the transition.
Morgane, 24, said: “We settled in quite quickly, and started working within a few days.
“Pauline and Keith have been absolutely amazing with everything, it’s all been really smooth.
“They’ve been helping us with local people and contacts in the area, which has been really precious because starting that from scratch would take many, many years.”
Locals ‘rush to help’
Paul, 34, said he and Morgane have been made to feel very welcome by the good folks of the north-east ever since they moved to The New Arc from their former base at a rescue centre in Hampshire back in December.
“We’ve already had quite a glut of volunteers from surrounding communities join us,” said Paul.
“We’ve got about two to three a day now who are new here, and helping us with our work.”
Morgane added: “We’ve been overwhelmed with the kindness of locals.
“We put out an appeal for someone to help us build an otter box, and within 12 hours someone had offered to help, built one, and delivered it.”
The pair also put out a plea for perches to be built for injured and sickly feathered friends staying at The New Arc, and within a week received “many, many” crafted by volunteers who answered the call.
“It’s just been so amazing,” said Morgane.
Pair’s busy first two months at The New Arc
Morgane and Paul have already hit the ground running, with various rescues carried out in their two months in Aberdeenshire already under their belts.
In January, they took in a robin which was found tangled in chicken netting in a skip in New Deer, and helped it to recover and be released back into the wild.
Morgane says she’s also proud of their work with a barn owl which was admitted into their care with an injured shoulder, which was also rehabilitated and returned to nature.
But unfortunately, there’s not been happy endings for every animal The New Arc takes into its care.
Last week they had to put down a roe deer which was reported struggling by the roadside near Macduff after it was struck by a car.
“It was a very sad one,” said Paul.
New managers new plans for the future
Moving forward, Paul and Morgane are planning on all sorts of new changes at The New Arc.
“At the moment,” said Paul, “the main thing we’re building is some new enclosures.
“We’ll be building some new ones for red squirrels and pine martens, and this will be possibly the first custom-made enclosures made for these animals in the north-east.
“Every year before we started here, The New Arc would rear about 10 baby red squirrels.
“Obviously these animals are of conservation concern, so it’s really important for us to have a good outdoor facility to wild them up before they depart and get going for themselves.”
Paul explained the thing he’s enjoying the most about living in Aberdeenshire is the variety of wildlife he and Morgane can see from their own back garden.
He added: “We were having a coffee in the office the other day and from our window we could see yellowhammers, tree sparrows and pink-footed geese.
“As wildlife lovers and nature lovers, not to mention bird-watchers, it’s absolutely incredible.”
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