Today Joan, Mum and I went to the Big Cat Sanctuary. This was a Christmas present from mum to me as I have been wanting to go here for many years. We got up and got everything ready and I was quite happy to sit in the back of the car as I thought they were just dropping me off for the photography thing and then going off on their own for the day. However when we arrived I started to get suspicious as Joan had her camera out and so did Mum, then I found out all three of us was doing the photo workshop which was amazing.
We arrived and was offered to have a drink while the member of staff went over the health and safety before heading out to meet the cats. We started off with Amasia the Amur tiger. What was amazing with the workshop was the fact we only really needed a 18-300 lens and we were right up against the mesh so we could get photos without the wire. When we first got to Amasia she was sat up on the hill posing so we managed to get some photos of her up there before she got up and moved to another spot by her platform from where we were standing we could not see so the member of staff said we could move to the other end to be able to get her.
The next point that we headed to which was the original first point of call was the tiger house which was home to three tigers in separate bits- Narnia the white tiger, Puna and Nias the Sumatran tigers. We got to photograph Puna as her enclosure was easier to get to and she is enthusiastic when it comes to food. We all stood in a line in the same place throughout the time with her as she isn’t one to go wondering around that much. We spent a good 10-15 minutes with her and until everyone had the photos they were happy with.
The next animal we went to see on the off chance they were awake was the Snow Leopards as the snow leopards have twins. However, all of the leopards were very sleepy at this stage so took a few photos before moving on.
Our next animal in the morning we went to see was the two pallas cats in separate enclosures- the Female Qara who had recently arrived at the sanctuary and Jethro the male. We started off with the female who was still quite shy of people but gave us all plenty of photo opportunities. Both pallas cats had different personalities. Again we spent a good 5-10 minutes with each of the pallas cats getting some photos of them. These were one of the more tricky animals to photograph as they did not stand still very long.
Next we were heading to the cheetahs to get some of the cheetahs however, we noticed the caracal sitting on the platform and me and mum wanted some photos of this caracal as it is Griffin the son of Yoda at Exmoor Zoo that we see regularly.
We then headed to the cheetahs which it took us all a while to find any then we eventually found Bajrami one of the male cheetahs. We spent a good 10-15 minutes with him as it took him a while to come out of hiding and came on show for us.
After the Cheetah we headed to the lion house as the lions were about to get their food for the day and we were allowed to get photos of them eating. We started of with Tiny one of the two in one enclosure until he gave up on getting the food off, when we headed to my favourite lion of the day Kasanga.
After we watched Kasanga eat his meat we headed to the next animal which was the Amur leopards. Big cat sanctuary has three Amur Leopards- Artur, Zizi and Hogar (need to check). We started with the Artur who was one of the most beautiful leopards I have seen and then when we had enough photos of him we headed to Zizi which out of the three was the easiest to tell apart as she had a perfect heart shaped spot on her face. And then went onto Hogar.
We then headed to the most feisty leopard they have at the Sanctuary Ta’rai the male northern Chinese leopard. This was probably the most challenging cat to get a photo of however enjoyed the challenge to get a photo of him without his teeth showing. We then headed to the female northern Chinese leopard who was much easier to photograph.
We then headed to see two of their jaguars- Atena and Sofia. Athena was interesting to photograph as being a black jaguar the exposure was hard to determine but I managed to get a few photos of her that I am happy with. Sofia came from Chester zoo so had to make sure I got some photos of her that I was happy with as I know a few people who knew her and wanted to see how she is getting on.
After that we went for our lunch break for 45 minutes which the staff had prepared for us and it was absolutely delicious. We started again at 1:15 for the afternoon session with Exmoor zoos baby puma well not a baby anymore but was nice to see one of the cubs all happy in the new home. His name is Tocho. He was quite shy to begin with and liked hiding behind small bits of plants however I did manage a few photos of him when he was out of hiding.
Once we had got enough photos of Tocho we headed to another jaguar. This stunning male Black jaguar is called Neron and came from Amsterdam. Just like Athena it was interesting to get the lighting right with him but loved at how much you can see the jaguar markings. We spent a good 10-15 minutes with him.
After photographing Neron and walking sideways to get out of the safety barrier we headed to the other two pumas- Victoria and Valentina. These two were much more photographic than Tocho. We spent another 10-15 minutes with them watching them and getting photos of them around their enclosure.
The next animal that we went to see was the one that I had always wanted to see as this animal is only kept at Big Cats so have never seen one before. Jack is a Jungle cat and is the only one in the UK so it was nice to see him. He like most small cats was hard to photograph as he would not stay still for very long. We spent about 15 minutes with him photographing him and finding out more about him.
After we had all got some photos of Jack we headed to the pride of white lions they have there and spent about 5-10 with them as the group was very sleepy at this time.
We then went to see the famous Black Jaguar Maya which was shown a lot on TV as she was hand reared. She lived up to the tv programme and showed her cheeky side a few times but was quite photogenic when she wanted to be.
We then headed to the fishing cat Aquarius who was hard to photograph as it was a small cat again. We spent about 10 minutes with him.
We then went back to the two white tigers. We started with Baikal who was very friendly towards us which for photos was interesting as he liked to be close to the wires. I did manage to get a few photos of him before we headed to Narnia who was outside but was asleep on her platform.
We then went back to the snow leopards in the off chance that the cubs were up and playing by this point which sadly wasn’t the case they were still asleep on the platform.
We then were heading to the Rusted spotted cat however we paused on the way to get a photo of Griffin the caracal with his lunch.
We then headed to the Rusted Spotted Cat which has to be up there with my favourite cat at the sanctuary. It was much smaller than I had imagined it being but it showed her feisty side as well. We spent about 10-15 minutes with her.
We then went to see another famous cat at the sanctuary Willow the Cheetah which was hand reared after it injured its leg at Wingham. She was interesting to photograph as she was laying down right next to the fence.
After taking a couple of photos of Willow we headed to the Lynx called Petra. Just like the other small cats she was very active and would not stay still for very long but managed to get a few action photos that I am happy with as well as a few when she was standing still that I like.
After we had finished with Petra we walked past the rest of her enclosure to the enclosure next door which was home to a beautiful serval who was even more interesting to photograph. Luckily I managed to get a few photos that I was happy with of her before moving to the last animal of the day.
Our last animal we saw is not a new one for the day we went back to see Kasanga after he has had his after lunch nap. We got photos of him walking around and spent about another 10 minutes with him getting photos of him.
That concluded our day at the Big Cat Sanctuary and I have to admit it was one of the best days ever and I will always remember this visit. Thank you to Mum for buying it for my Christmas present and cant wait to do it again sometime. Thank you to Joan for joining me in doing it (and to you mum). Thank you to Sarah the photographer for taking us round to see the amazing cats and making sure we were getting the photos we wanted.