Finishing my Placement at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation

Last week I finished my last placement for my placement year which was at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Kent. It is crazy how quickly my 9 months of placements have flown by but this last placement was certainly the quickest.

My time at WHF was brilliant and part of me wishes I was still down there now. From getting to educate people about all the cats on site with the guest experiences to looking after the cats and food prep the whole 3 months was incredible. Getting the opportunity to train a cheetah and also do a talk about white lions to over 100 people are experiences that I can not forget and the team there really did make my time so incredible.

My New Placement- Wildlife Heritage Foundation

As you may have guessed if you follow me on instagram (@erinkaywilliams), I have been working with some big and small cats at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation, my last placement on my placement year.

Wildcat and Tiger Trades Increasing

I haven't posted about nature in the news for what feels like forever but this story, just after I returned from Africa, really caught my attention.

It has been found that from a survey conducted over the past two decades, that the trade of tiger and wildcat parts from  Myanmar (Burma) into China in recent years is growing. The fact that the sale of these animals is still increasing is a dying shame because soon there really will be none of them left to sell.

Kruger, Mountains and So Much More

The past 2 weeks really have flown by! 

The Vervet monkey females had babies which are all adorable and I got to see them throughout the week. 

A baby Vervet monkey

My mum also arrived for a visit which was definitely just as exciting. She came up to Lajuma, where I got to show her around and we saw all 3 types of monkeys. We also climbed Mount Lajuma before we headed back down the mountain and traveled to Kruger Park.

Samango monkey feeding

Me at the top of Mount Lajuma

On the way to Kruger we stopped at the Vervet Monkey Rehabilitation Centre which was really interesteing. We got to hear all about the monkeys and some of their stories and the problems facing them. We even got to see 2 blind monkeys that had lost their sight when shot by farmers which was so sad.

After we left the centre we reached our hotel, the Sabie River Bush Lodge. The lodge was beautiful, our room overlooked the garden and had a huge high thatched roof which was just stunning. The main deck area looked out over the river and Kruger Park and one night we were lucky enough to see elephants by the water.

The first evening at the lodge we went on a sunset drive where we got to see Elephants, Rhinos, Lions and Giraffes and Impala which was amazing.

Wednesday morning Mum and I headed in to the park early and drove around all day.  At lunch I had a baboon steal my blueberry muffin which was a little unexpected!

We were so lucky to have a female lion walk out right out in front of our car and got to see the back end of a leopard as well!

On Thursday we went on a morning game drive and managed to see all of the big 5 before midday which was incredible. We then headed back to the lodge and spent a relaxing afternoon by the pool.

Friday seemed to have arrived far too quickly and we went to Maholoholo Rehab Centre where we had a very informative talk about the poaching issue, not just for the Asian market but also for traditional African healers who pay people to illegally hunt the animals because they don't have easy access to their native species.  We were also told about how the trophy hunting trade funds a great deal of consevation efforts as well as provides meat for rehab centres like Moholoholo.

 I also got to get close to see wild dog, a leopard and some cool birds.

We then drove back through the park and saw hyenas and lions on the way before reaching the hotel and having our last dinner in Kruger overlooking the river.

We left Sabie River Bush Lodge on Saturday morning and headed up into the mountains. The cloud was still low first thing so instead we headed to Pilgrams Rest, a small town that used to mine gold. From there we drove back up to the mountains calling at the view points of the Panorama Route before reaching Graskop and our hotel.

On Sunday we headed back down to Hazyview and did a 1.2km zipwire ride from near the top of the mountain down to the bottom which was so much fun! We got to see some great views as well. We then headed to the airport and mum got on her flight home and I headed back to Lajuma.

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.