This Christmas Themed Mammal House is a Delight

A wild mammal box is a great way to get an intimate glimpse into the an amazing world otherwise unseen in our day to day lives. With the festive season upon us, naturalist and blogger  WildlifeKate has created a mammal box that would be fit for Santa and his merry elves.

Being a yearly occasion, Kate typically designs the mammal box around a Christmas sitting room (or living room for those across the pond!) – but this year she tried something a little bit different, and even more magical.

“Much searching on doll’s house websites and I chose this year’s theme…. Santa’s sleigh!” Kate writes on her blog.

In designing the box, Kate began by changing from her usual camera – a Viviotek IP – instead opting for a Hikvision mini dome IP cam. This would allow for improved depth of field, whilst reducing the possibility of small mammals disturbing the camera when they inevitably clambered over it.

To create the scene, Kate purchased a plastic reindeer and sleigh to fit snugly in the emptied out mammal box. She then lined the box with matt black plastic, to allow the subject prominence in the scene. Glueing some confetti snowflakes to the plastic, alongside a white plastic floor with fake snow fixed to it, gave the box a fabulously Christmas feel.

Dotting around a handful of glimmering presents and positioning a proud Christmas tree in the corner, as well as new lights to illuminate the action, the box was set to go outside and shoot some awesome festive footage!

The project has been sponsored by CJ Wildlife, with the live stream from the box able to view on both Kate’s website and theirs. Kate was also helped by iCode in setting up the camera and live stream for the web.

Oh, and she’s already had a visitor!

For updates, be sure to follow Kate’s twitter account to see who visits over Christmas!