Sporrans reintroduced to the wild

[kevinkinney]

Hello all, we have grand news!

Beth and I are proud to announce that our efforts have paid off. Inspired by the success of captive breeding programs by Turpin, Lamar, Donnie, Joe, and other XMTS members, we tried something bold. For years, we've been grooming our property to make it a better habitat for wild sporrans, with the hope of reintroducing them to Northern Minnesota.

We tried for years and failed to introduced healthy, breeding-age male and female sporrans to our 1/5 acre yard. Because of our latitude and legendary winters, we began with fur evening specimens. They thrived in our climate, but took little interest in each other. Most would deplete the surrounding area of food, and leave after a single season. Day sporrans did poorly too, falling to predation by local animals.

But we had success this summer with two robust evening sporrans, a conservative Rob Roy female in black, shown near the end of her 3 month gestation, and a more contemporary evening casual sporran, bringing some food to the nesting box outside our shop.




The female went into labor last night just before we went to bed. This morning, we awoke to find a pair of twin baby hunting sporrans in the box. The parents and the newborns appear healthy. Here the father in feeding the already-hungry offspring.


We wish them good luck. Beth and I hope to monitor their progress as they prepare to migrate South for the winter.

Cheers,

Kevin.

PS- these are for my son and his friend, the guests of honor at an upcoming dinner.