Teaching Talons, The Animal Ambassadors, Ltd.

  • Home
  • Teaching Talons, The Animal Ambassadors, Ltd.

Teaching Talons, The Animal Ambassadors, Ltd. Educational animal encounters
🛻Mobile zoo
🥇Award winning
🦉Bringing learning to life
AAL.19/017833 Teaching Talons (Animal Ambassadors) Ltd.
(86)

is an exciting family business; set up and run by Becky, Tara, Russell and Wendy Shaw. We are a multi award-winning mobile zoo, providing professional, educational animal encounters at a variety of events and locations. Our knowledgeable, friendly presenters- Becky, Yaz, Russ, Danii, Dawn and Wendy, our jungle themed stand and our fantastic range of exotic and companion animals create a memorable

experience for all who meet us. Many of our animals are rescued or donated to us. Becky is also an experienced zoo keeper, setting up the business after leaving the zoo industry in 2014. We are based in Bedfordshire, England and also cover a wide surrounding area including Herts, Beds, Bucks, Northants, Oxford, Cambridge, London and further afield (please phone or email to discuss your location). Our staff are all experienced and/or qualified in animal keeping, training, welfare and care, with CV's are available on request. Our backgrounds vary from zoo keeping, veterinary customer care, working in EYFS, animal technician work and even sheep farming- with animal qualifications ranging from National Diplomas to Foundation and BSc Honours degrees! If you have a child who is animal mad, if you are a teacher looking for an inspiring workshop, if you're a care home or charity looking for an unusual, interactive visitor or you’re looking for an attention grabbing feature for your event or party- we are just what you’re looking for! With our fantastic collection of tame, exotic and companion animals, Teaching Talons can attend a whole variety of occasions and locations including, but not limited to; birthday parties (at your own home or venue), weddings (photo shoots with our animals and entertainment packages), private events, schools, clubs, care homes, charity fund raisers, shows, fetes and more to add that special something! Our animals include owls, reptiles, invertebrates, amphibians, small mammals and companion animals such as rabbits. http://www.teachingtalons.co.uk/mammals - Please click through the ‘Our Animals’ tabs

During your animal encounter you will see our animal team up close and personal. There will be opportunities to stroke or hold certain animals (handling is limited with children under 5) and you can even see some of them exhibiting natural behaviours or doing a feeding demonstration right before your eyes! We offer a range of different packages for different types of bookings and can also create bespoke sessions to suit requirements. We have a range of subject specific workshops and worksheets for school sessions which can be seen on our website.-
https://www.teachingtalons.co.uk/schools-1 - Please click through the ‘What we do’ tabs

Our main aim is 'edutainment'. No matter what type of event Teaching Talons attends, it will be accompanied by educational talks and facts. These will be presented in a fun, exciting way to inspire and teach our audience, no matter what the occasion or age group! We want everyone to learn something about the amazing animals we share our planet with and to gain a passion and respect for wildlife and habitats all around the world. We also hope to encourage people to help protect our planet and its wildlife and to make people more aware of the biodiversity of our planet and its needs for protection and conservation. We have a full risk assessment, public liability insurance with up to £5,000,000 of cover and our presenters are enhanced DBS checked (previously CRB). We hold the new Animal Activities License (AAL), which came into force on April 1st 2019. Please note, any encounter company operating without an AAL is now operating illegally. We don’t own, train or display anything classed by law as a DWA (Dangerous Wild Animal). We have A10 paperwork for any species we own protected by CITES (Convention for the International Trade of Endangered Species). We also have an animal transport license. We do not promote exotic animals as pets and do not recommend getting any pet unless you have properly researched that animal and its needs and can ensure you can provide it with a full, well cared for life. Many of our animals are rescues and ex-pets whose owners could sadly no longer keep them. For more information please visit our website
www.teachingtalons.co.uk

Email us at
[email protected]

Alternatively give us a call on 07718923708

We look forward to hearing from you! The Teaching Talons team. You can also follow us on Twitter
http://twitter.com/TeachingTalons

Pinterest
http://www.pinterest.com/teachingtalons/

Instagram
https://instagram.com/teachingtalons/

TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/

LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/teaching-talons-animal-ambassadors-limited/

18/11/2024

SO proud of Pig the Southern white faced owl. On Saturday, we tried him for the first time flying between two children at a party. As you can see, he was very professional!

Huge thanks to the party hosts, Soimitra and Amy for capturing and sharing these moments with us! The room had lots of distractions, like balloons and a very close, excited audience- but he didn't bat an eyelid!

A very happy 1st birthday to Harri...who had a nap for most of his special occasion, but his family had a great time, especially his sister, Amelia and his two nephews, Shivam and Rishi seen here, helping us with owl training! Thanks for your help, boys!

Surely it should be illegal to be this cute, right?!Dobby, partying hard this afternoon for Hari’s 1st birthday.
16/11/2024

Surely it should be illegal to be this cute, right?!
Dobby, partying hard this afternoon for Hari’s 1st birthday.

Christmas gift idea! Available to order NOW! Our first EVER Teaching Talons A4 size calendar. We are so excited about th...
15/11/2024

Christmas gift idea! Available to order NOW! Our first EVER Teaching Talons A4 size calendar. We are so excited about these. Featuring beautiful, high quality images from the brilliant Rachel Piper and a premium glossy finish. These wall calendars feature hundreds of National and global animal and environment days, weeks and months- so you can celebrate the planet and they also feature our animal teams birthdays!

The perfect Christmas gift for the animal lover in your life, or as a gift to yourself

These are £15 per calendar, plus p+p, or you can collect from Flitwick. UK postage only, postage price to be confirmed.
You can order in the comments, or by emailing [email protected]
Payment in advance.

Huge thanks to Rachel for allowing us to share and use her beautiful images.

Yesterday we did lots of gardening at HQ, ready for garden bin day tomorrow. The animals enjoyed the spoils with free br...
11/11/2024

Yesterday we did lots of gardening at HQ, ready for garden bin day tomorrow. The animals enjoyed the spoils with free browse enrichment. Apple branches for the guinea pigs and lavender for Albert!

Dobby, the lesser tenrec. All grown up at a year old and a fan favourite already. Lesser tenrecs are only found on the i...
09/11/2024

Dobby, the lesser tenrec. All grown up at a year old and a fan favourite already. Lesser tenrecs are only found on the island of Madagascar 🇲🇬(which is probably why you may never have heard of them!).

Dobby may look like a hedgehog, but he’s a great example of ‘convergent evolution’- as he is not actually related to hedgehogs at all! He’s in fact more closely related to elephants 🐘 than hedgehogs 🦔! 😱 🤯 He has been helping lots with workshops on classification and rainforests this week.💜

Wow! What a week so far- we have delivered NINETEEN school workshops to over 500 children in total and today we attended...
09/11/2024

Wow! What a week so far- we have delivered NINETEEN school workshops to over 500 children in total and today we attended two wonderful birthday parties for Gracie and Annabelle (traffic and road works were awful today, but you can’t have it all!). One more party tomorrow for Fin and this week is a successful wrap! We couldn’t resist taking advantage of the gorgeous theming of our classroom at Holmwood School and Nursery for some animal photos!

Thank you for all your bookings this week. We just have a few days left for 2024 and our full 2025 diary is open NOW, with bookings already in as far ahead as November 2025- so do get in touch now to secure your 2025 dates!

Chip had an excellent day in Harrow yesterday, back at Kenmore Park Junior School. He was very excited about all his ‘fa...
08/11/2024

Chip had an excellent day in Harrow yesterday, back at Kenmore Park Junior School. He was very excited about all his ‘fan mail’ from year 3! What a 🌟

A fabulous day at the museum (one of three days spent at museums during half-term!). Thanks for having us!
07/11/2024

A fabulous day at the museum (one of three days spent at museums during half-term!). Thanks for having us!

A perfect pair! Diva and Butterbeer 🤍🤎🧡
07/11/2024

A perfect pair! Diva and Butterbeer 🤍🤎🧡

Look at this brilliant cake for DJ’s party from Baking Mad Hatter!
03/11/2024

Look at this brilliant cake for DJ’s party from Baking Mad Hatter!

🎄🐾 With Christmas approaching, we thought we would share our animals Amazon Wish List with you all again, in case anyon...
03/11/2024

🎄🐾 With Christmas approaching, we thought we would share our animals Amazon Wish List with you all again, in case anyone would like to purchase anything for the animals this year!
🎄⭐️🐾🐀🦔🦜🐍🐢🐌🦉🐾⭐️🎄

We are not a charity, but as a small business, with expensive overheads that seem to be ever increasing and a lot of rescue animals- this list is super helpful to us. If anyone would like to purchase something for the animals off the list, please click the link.

We have noted a few items we are low on with highest priority and the list contains lots of essentials, like bedding- but we have added some fun stuff too!

Any toys and treats will be saved for Christmas and all items will be photographed with the animals and shared, with thanks- so you can see them in use. Please include a note with your name and if you prefer to purchase from elsewhere, just drop us a message for the delivery address. Thanks in advance!

Now Sylvie is all healed, we have started her handling training! We’ve had some really patient and understanding audienc...
03/11/2024

Now Sylvie is all healed, we have started her handling training! We’ve had some really patient and understanding audiences and yesterday afternoon, she attended her first party, for Teddy, in Flitwick, where she was discovered. She’s a speedy noodle, so all photos a blur, but did so well!

Happy ! There are over 200 species of stick insects and they all very in size, length and appearance- depending on wha...
01/11/2024

Happy ! There are over 200 species of stick insects and they all very in size, length and appearance- depending on what plant, or part of the plant they have evolved to camouflage with. So they don’t always look like a stick! Some look more like a live, or dead leaf and even bark.

We’re big stick fans and currently have 5 species in the collection. This photo is of a macleays stick insect, from Australia. When the babies (known as nymphs) hatch, they resemble and mimic a red headed ant 🐜. This is because the eggs have a tasty nub on the end- designed to attract the ants, who then carry the fallen eggs to the safety of their nest to store. The ants eat the nub, without damaging the nymph inside and the stick insects eventually hatch safely underground, in the safety of the ant nest. Thanks to mimicking an ant- the colony don’t realise there is an impostor in their midst and the tiny trickster makes it’s way out to the surface and up into the foliage! AMAZING!

😂
30/10/2024

😂

💚💜 What we’re all about!!!!! 💜💚
30/10/2024

💚💜 What we’re all about!!!!! 💜💚

Address


Telephone

07718923708

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Teaching Talons, The Animal Ambassadors, Ltd. posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Teaching Talons, The Animal Ambassadors, Ltd.:

Videos

All set up for Halloween at Stevenage Town Centre at Event Island with Stevenage Borough Council . We’re here until 4pm and there’s lots on!

Sylvie loves having access to clean, fresh water now she’s safe and cared for again! Here’s a cute video Yaz got of her enjoying a deep drink. 💜🐍

The harvest mice were an absolute hit on their first event for The Heart Of Marston on Saturday. Everyone thought they were babies and were amazed these perfect, tiny mice are actually adults! They were great fun to watch. Follow TeachingTalons on TikTok for more mouse content!

Albert the Amazon wowing the crowd today- saying goodbye to the children after his little performance! 💚💛🧡 🦜

WE NEED YOUR VOTE - THANK YOU! We've been nominated for BEST CHILDRENS BUSINESS in the Muddy Stilettos awards. We would love to make it to the regional finals- but we need your help to get there! Please click the link to nominate 'Teaching Talons (Animal Ambassadors) Ltd.' for BEST CHILDRENS BUSINESS for Herts & Beds. https://herts.muddystilettos.co.uk/awards/nominate/ As always, we are forever grateful for your support and if you can share the link to nominate us too, that would be incredible! Thank you! #MuddyAwards2024 #InLoveWithLocal

We had to say goodbye to our much loved and long standing team member, Squid the guinea pig this week. We adopted her back in 2019 from Luna Animal Rescue and she was at least 6-7 years old- a great age for a guinea pig. As you can see, she was happy and munching til the end- enjoying unlimited parsley and pea flakes in reception at the vets on Becky’s lap. She had very recently developed a mass that was linked to her vulva, which we suspect was also connected to other internal structures and organs, having consulted one of our vets. We have been keeping a close eye on her and noticed some subtle changes starting with her toileting and body condition. We decided to let her peacefully go to sleep, before it affected her quality of life. Did you meet Squid over the past 5 years with us? Please share your comments and memories in the comments with us. Despite her long life, it’s never long enough and this little rescue pig, who lived a spoilt rotten life will be very missed!

Chip is such a special dog. Just look at these lovely photos from a recent visit to one of our regular care homes. He goes to every visit. His only downside? Too big to be a lap dog! Click ‘Book Now’ on our profile to enquire about one of our ‘Caring Creatures’ sessions for all types of residential home settings. We visit care homes, assisted living homes, hospital & specialist care units and housing for a range of needs.

Pigwidgeon flying like a pro this year! Wendy has been filling in for Russ, who has been out of action for the last couple of weeks. Wendy is now a pro too 🤣. Listen to that lovely reaction of the children 🥰. We have the best job! Huge thanks to one of the teachers from yesterdays school visit for sending us this!

And the DNA results are in! Our tawny owl chick is a……

Shortcuts

  • Address
  • Telephone
  • Alerts
  • Contact The Business
  • Videos
  • Claim ownership or report listing

  • Want your business to be the top-listed Event Planning Service?

Share

Bringing education to life!

Teaching Talons (Animal Ambassadors) Ltd. is an exciting family business; set up and run by Becky, Tara, Russell and Wendy Shaw. We provide professional, educational animal encounters at a variety of events and locations with our knowledgeable, friendly staff and exotic and companion animals. Becky and Tara are also experienced zoo keepers. We started trading in March 2014. Please feel free to phone or email with any enquiries. We are based in Bedfordshire, England and also cover a wide surrounding area including Herts, Beds, Bucks, Northants, Oxford, Cambridge, London and further afield (please phone or email to discuss your location). If you have a child who is animal mad, if you are a teacher looking for an inspiring workshop, if you're a care home or charity looking for an unusual, interactive visitor or you’re looking for an attention grabbing feature for your event or party- we are just what you’re looking for! With our fantastic collection of tame, exotic and companion animals, Teaching Talons can attend a whole variety of occasions and locations including, but not limited to; birthday parties (at your own home or venue), weddings (photo shoots with our animals and entertainment packages), private events, schools, clubs, care homes, charity fund raisers, shows, fetes and more to add that special something! Our animals include owls, reptiles, invertebrates, amphibians, small mammals and companion animals such as rabbits. http://www.teachingtalons.co.uk/mammals - Please click through the ‘Our Animals’ tabs During your animal encounter you will see our animal team up close and personal. There will be opportunities to stroke or hold certain animals (handling is limited with children under 5) and you can even see some of them exhibiting natural behaviours or doing a feeding demonstration right before your eyes! We offer a range of different packages for different types of bookings and can also create bespoke sessions to suit requirements. We have a range of subject specific workshops and worksheets for school sessions which can be seen on our website.- https://www.teachingtalons.co.uk/schools-1 - Please click through the ‘What we do’ tabs Our main aim is 'edutainment'. No matter what type of event Teaching Talons attends, it will be accompanied by educational talks and facts. These will be presented in a fun, exciting way to inspire and teach our audience, no matter what the occasion or age group! We want everyone to learn something about the amazing animals we share our planet with and to gain a passion and respect for wildlife and habitats all around the world. We also hope to encourage people to help protect our planet and its wildlife and to make people more aware of the biodiversity of our planet and its needs for protection and conservation. Becky and Tara also have previous experience working as zoo keepers and falconers with seven years experience in the zoo world between them and a total of over 14 years experience working with animals in a variety of roles. Becky also has a BSc. honours degree in applied animal behaviour and training. CVs are available on request. We have public and product liability insurance with up to £2,000,000 of cover. We are enhanced DBS checked (previously CRB) and hold the new Animal Activities License (AAL), which came into force on April 1st 2019. Please note, any encounter company operating without an AAL is now operating illegally. We don’t own, train or display anything classed by law as a DWA (Dangerous Wild Animal). We have A10 paperwork for any species we own protected by CITES (Convention for the International Trade of Endangered Species). We also have an animal transport license. We do not promote exotic animals as pets and do not recommend getting any pet unless you have properly researched that animal and its needs and can ensure you can provide it with a full, well cared for life. Several of our animals are rescues and ex pets whose owners could sadly no longer keep them. For more information please visit our website www.teachingtalons.co.uk Email us at [email protected] Alternatively give us a call on 07718923708 We look forward to hearing from you! The Teaching Talons team. You can also follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/TeachingTalons Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/teachingtalons/ And Instagram https://instagram.com/teachingtalons/