The Wildlife Heritage Foundation

My Placement
Recently I have been very busy with the Wildlife Heritage Foundation (WHF). A few weeks ago I went to an interview there about an intern role for 3 months and 2 weeks ago I got the news that I had been successful!!

WHF is a big cat sanctuary in Kent that strives towards being recognised as the best breeding centre for endangered big cats in the world which is a phenomenal mission! My placement will start with them next April which feels like ages away but I expect it to fly round.

My Photography Course
This weekend I visited the WHF again for a photography course that was a Christmas present from my Mum. We arrived onsite at 9.30. The course was taken by John Wright  of Photographers on Safari www.photographersonsafari.com. After an introduction about the best camera settings and a health and safety talk we started our day photographing with the Cheetah. On our way we were shown a piece of sheet steel that was used as an enclosure partition. It was impossible to bend or move but somehow a tiger had bent it beyond repair with puncture and scratch marks all over it. The clear strength of the animal was a reminder to us throughout the day to be careful where we put our fingers.

The whole day was brilliant, we got to get really close to so many big cats! Being 3ft away from a tiger and being so close to such endangered species was an amazing opportunity. I took 100's of pictures during the day and got to learn more about my camera which was a great experience.

WHF have so many cats including Amur Leopards, Amur Tigers, Black Leopards, Clouded Leopards, Fishing Cats, North Chinese Leopards, Snow Leopards, Pumas, Pallas Cats and many more. Getting such an up close and personal experience and the money going towards conservation makes it all the more worth while.

If you are free and in or around Kent, the WHF are having open days where the sanctuary is open to the public between 17th-20th July. It is a rare opportunity to see so many species of big cats in such close quarters and definitely not something to miss out on and tickets are only £10! to learn more about the WHF visit http://www.whf.org.uk/

Here are some of my favourite pictures taken on the day. I spent a lot of my time being in awe of the cats and so narrowing down 300 was definitely tricky.