Things I've Shot

Wild Place Project in Bristol was opened by the Bristol Zoological Society with an emphasis on protecting threatened habitats. We’ve been before a year or so ago when it first opened. It was cheap but also quite empty on the animal front. With new wildlife being brought in we went back to see what had changed.

Cheetahs were the latest residents and we arrived just in time to see the fastest land mammals feeding time.

As the big cats smelt the food, they drew in closer in preparation for their dinner. The keepers provided a talk about the Cheetahs which gave a huge insight into the how they acted in the wild and the plans for the Cheetahs at the Wild Place.

We were told that being cats they are naturally lazy and although they could run from 0-60 in 3 seconds, they very rarely did it. Being in captivity and having food provided to them meant their exercise was particularly low. To overcome this the project was in the process of creating a mechanical lure around the perimeter of the fence on a ground rail that food could be placed on and  make the Cheetahs work for their meals.

Next up was the Lemurs. The project hosts several types of Lemur and we were lucky enough to have arrived at a time when the baby ring tail Lemurs were just 3 weeks old.

They spent a lot of time holding onto their parents. Trying to get a good photo was tricky because when they weren’t clinging on, they were jumping around.

Luckily they began to tire and slowed down enough for some photos. Another visitor got a bit too friendly with one of the baby Lemurs and he ended up sat on her camera as she attempted to take a picture of it.

The Wild Place is a fantastic project and well worth the very inexpensive entry fee. All the money goes towards supporting wildlife in the community and across the world.