My Photographic Adventures: Big Cats

Now for the final part of my visit to the WHF.

This is a little overdue; I have been so busy that this is the first opportunity I’ve had to write it up so firstly apologies for that but hopefully it will be worth the wait.

The rest of the day was free time for us to walk around the centre and go back to the animals we wanted to get some more pictures of – except the leopards as they are so quick and unpredictable you can only visit them with a keeper. I had a walk around and revisited some of the cats that I had already seen to try and get some additional pictures of them starting with the Pallas cats then working towards the tigers. This is when my favourite part of the day took place.
When walking towards the main tiger pen there was a solitary tiger in an enclosure and he was laid down right next to the fence and when I say right next to the fence I mean literally against it. Realising this was the perfect opportunity as there was no other visitors anywhere near me I very quietly sat down next to the fence right next to where the tiger was sitting and said hello to him. I couldn’t quite believe that I was sat about 6 inches away from a tiger chatting away to him telling him how absolutely beautiful he was!

The next thing I knew just as my own cat at home would do he rolled upside down onto his back and pulled in his paws in towards the centre of his body and let out a little noise, not quite a purr but quite similar to one. So I slowly got out my camera and took a couple of shots……

After a couple of minutes he rolled back over and lay against the fence so I took the opportunity to get a close up picture of his eye……if you look closely you can see my refelection in it.

He repeated this about four or five times, rolling onto his back and posing for me some more before rolling back and relaxing again. He kept making these little noises exactly how my cat does when she is ‘talking’ to me but obviously a lot louder than my pet does! It was such an amazing experience – I mean how many people can say they had a ‘chat’ with a Tiger?

The very last animals I met on my visit to the WHF were the Kings of the Jungle – the Lions. They have three lions at the centre Tiny, Kafara and Manzi who are all brothers who were born at Woburn Safari Park, the brothers had to be moved to as the from Woburn as they already had resident male lions in their pride.

Now admittedly on the day of our visit the lions didn’t really do much except spend most of the day asleep in the sun! Occasionally they would get up for a short while to turn over or have a yawn with their huge mouths but most of the day they seemed like they hardly moved.

The African lion is the only big cat not endangered, being listed as a “threatened species”. This means there are some restrictions in international trade of lions and their parts. Lions are found through out sub Saharan Africa inhabiting savannahs, grassy plains and open woodlands. Their life span is on average 15 years in the wild with captive lions living up to their late twenties.

Lions are the only social member of the cat family living in groups known as prides consisting of related females and their young and 1 – 2 males. It is the females who do most of the hunting, running at a maximum speed of 30 mph over 50 yards. They are 1 of 4 of the big cats that can roar. It is said that a lions roar can be heard over 5 miles away. The biggest threats to the lion population in the wild are poaching and hunting of the animals and through disease such as canine distemper and FIV which is the feline version of HIV.

Another group of people came to the enclosure who were being shown round by a keeper; they weren’t a photography group as they didn’t have cameras. They may possibly been a group of people who were attending one of the afternoons for animal adopters to visit their chosen adopted cat. The keeper explained that lions like the smell of lavender; she then got some lavender oil out of her pocket and applied some to the back of her hand. More or less immediately one of the lions (I think it was Tiny) jumped down off his wooden platform and came over to the fence. He started rubbing himself up against the fence the same way a household cat rubs itself up against the furniture – he loved obviously really did love the smell of the lavender oil. The keeper then let us stroke the lion through the bars which was fantastic! The fur on his body looked as if it would be very smooth but it was actually very wiry and his mane was really wiry and dry not at all how I expected it to be, not that I ever really expected to ever get to physically stroke a lion!

Before I knew it the day was over and it was time for me to start the drive back to Milton Keynes, I must admit I didn’t want the day to end it had been amazing from start to finish. It wasn’t just about the photography for me but I actually ended up enjoying seeing the cats close up and hearing about the work the Wildlife Heritage Foundation are doing at trying to save these spectacular big cats from possible extinction.

I am definitely going to be returning to the centre again, they run photography days throughout the year and I know that the Talk Photography Forum are planning on running some more days next year so hopefully I will be able to make one of those. I would definitely recommend the photography days for anyone who would like the opportunity to get up close to these animals for themselves – the money raised also helps the centre pay for the upkeep of the cats that reside with them so it goes to a worthwhile cause.

I’m also considering adopting one of the cats through the adopt an animal scheme run by the WHF. For £50 a year you can adopt a cat of your choice and you get invited to visit the centre on adopter’s day so you can see the progress your animal is making.

For more information about the Wildlife Heritage Foundation please look at their website http://www.whf.org.uk

So that brings my big cat’s diary to a close but before I go I want to share with you my favourite picture from the day……