WHF is currently in the process of setting up a very exciting project to help widen the global gene pool of white lions, native to the Timbervati region of South Africa. The project involves bringing two white lionesses to WHF from South Africa to form a pride with our resident male white lion, Themba (pictured).

In order to bring the lionesses to WHF we are urgently seeking the funds needed to pay for transportation and vets bills (critical to ensure the lionesses remain in good health during the trip).

We need to raise in excess of £3,000 before the relocation can take place. If you are able to help this critical project by making a donation, large or small, to help and to play your part in securing a future for the white lion, please contact Simon Jones on 01233 771915 or e-mail to corporate@whf.org.uk

WHF has successfully relocated lions to Africa in the past as part of our work with different global conservation organisations. Our white lion pride will play the same role in supporting our global work as the rest of the cats based at our centre in Kent.

Thank you in advance for your continued help and support

WHF ON THE BBC
On Monday 24th October WHF will be featured on BBC1 South East's Inside Out programme. Inside Out is on air at 19:30 and if you live in the South East region you can just tune into BBC1 in the normal way. If you live outside the South East and have SKY you can tune in to channel 983. Alternatively, the show will be on BBC iPlayer until Sunday 30th October. The programme will feature our Sumatran tiger cubs and our Amur leopards.

We are giving you the opportunity to NAME OUR NEW SUMATRAN TIGER CUBS, both of which are males.
We have narrowed the shortlist to 4 names and you get to help us decide the final 2! All you have to do is pick your favourite name and send us a text to vote.

The text will cost you £1 which you will be able to add Gift Aid.

The winning names will be those that receive the most votes.
You can vote as many time as you like!

THE NAMES and TEXT NUMBERS:

TOBA - After Lake Toba in Indonesia
Text: toba35 1 to 70070

KUBU - means STRONGHOLD in Indonesian Text: kubu35 1 to 70070

JIWA - means HEART in Indonesian
Text: jiwa35 1 to 70070

DAYA - means SOLDIER in Indonesian
Text: daya35 1 to 70070

Thank you in advance for your support.

Latest News from WHF.....
It is with the greatest of pleasure and pride that we can announce that Puna, our female Sumatran Tiger, gave birth to TWO cubs on Wednesday afternoon (10th Aug). After monitoring them over the last 36 hours day and night we can say that the cubs seem strong and healthy, feeding well from mum, and Puna is very attentive. Fantastic news I'm sure you'll agree.

To support the work of Wildlife Heritage Foundation, please text WILD35 5 to 70070. This example is for a £5 donation (the 5 after the WILD35 is the amount of the donation).

We have just launched a brand new service that enables you to donate to WHF via text message. It has never been simpler for you to support the work that we do in saving some of the most endangered species of cat in the world.

The money that you donate via text will help our work here in the UK and will also support the projects we work with around the world to ensure the likes of the Amur Leopard, the Sumatran Tiger and many others are protected from extinction.

You can choose the amount you donate from the following amounts: £1, £2, £3, £5 or £10. For example, if you wanted to donate £2, you would change the above example to WILD35 2 to 70070.

We thank you for your support

Here is a video of Olivias visit to WHF

Join us on the 3rd July 2011 , and help to raise valuable funds for our conservation and preservation work on-site and world-wide, by participating in our first Big Cat Treasure Hunt!

The route will start and finish at our breeding centre in Kent and involve following our map through the Kent countryside looking for cat-related clues.

Participants are asked to arrive no earlier than 10 am and we anticipate everyone will be back at WHF by approximately 3 pm for a very relaxed tour of the beautiful cats that call WHF home.

The day will also include the opportunity to take part in a raffle and an onsite barbecue (paid for separately).

Prizes will be awarded for most correctly answered questions; best mileage (this is not a race); and best "costume".

Entry fee is £25 per car, £10 per motorcycle, or for the very fit £5 per bicycle. Numbers are limited, so book early to avoid disappointment.

To book online select your vehicle from the drop-down menu under our "Buy an experience online" tab (right). Alternatively, you can contact one of our Admin team at enquiries@whf.org.uk, or by calling 01233 771915 to book or for further information.

So once again Dudley Zoo find themselves tiger-less for the busy summer season. Step up Tamair, WHF's biggest cat at 210 kg, 14 foot long (nose to tail) and 3.5 foot tall, to help them out and more than fill their tiger enclosure!!

Tamair is a mischievious fellow who knows his own mind and is well loved at WHF by the team and his adopters alike. We will all miss him (and his tiger "talk") very much while he is off on his holidays!

He will return in the Autumn, and we know that he will be very well looked after by the great team at Dudley, and make a great addition to their zoo (especially as his favourite activities are being fed and laying sleeping in the sunshine)!!

After winning hearts and friends at Dudley Zoo our 5 year old hybrid tiger, Makari, came home on 15th April 2011 (four days before his birthday!).

This was after a reevaluation of his individual requirements in a conventional zoo environment, and it was felt that the relative quiet of WHF would be beneficial for his needs and welfare, and we are pleased to have him home.

Our adult Amur leopard male, Artem (brother of Artur and uncle to Argun), left the site yesterday for a new home at Rutland Falconry and Owl Centre.

Along with four other resident Amur leopards at the centre, Artem will be in semi-retirement and acting as an ambassador for the critically endangered Amur leopard, only being visited by the public on six select open days per year and helping the centre to raise valuable funds for wild Amur leopard conservation.

Artem is a brilliant cat with a cheeky, feisty character and we will miss him, but we know that he will be very well cared for at Rutland!

For further information on the centre please visit http://www.rutland-falconry.com/rws.html

Our sister site, Paradise Wildlife Park (PWP), hosted a very successful cheetah evening on 28th March 2011, with International Cheetah Studbook Keeper and Founder and Executive Director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) Dr Laurie Marker.

WHF actively supports CCF and during the evening, Peter Sampson (left, director of PWP and chairman of the board of trustees for WHF), Brian Badger (middle, WHF general manager) and Bill Statham (far right, of Friends of Paradise Wildlife Park) presented Dr Laurie Marker with a cheque for £2000 for CCF.

To find out more about cheetah conservation and the excellent conservation work of CCF please visit our cheetah page at "who do we have on site" to the right of this page, or visit the CCF website at http://www.cheetah.org/

Pallas' cat "kitten" Pamir, the second female born last May to Tula and Wei Shand has headed off to the Rare Species Conservation Centre in Sandwich, Kent, as part of the Pallas' cat EEP. She will be paired at RSCC with a male Pallas' cat from Germany. Pamir is a very sweet natured cat and we wish her all the best and hope to hear news of Pallas' cat kittens at RSCC in the future!

WHF is pleased to welcome our first two rusty-spotted cats!

The sisters, named "Chan" and "Nuwara" after places in the species' native Sri Lanka, arrived yesterday from Parc des Félins, in France. WHF General Manager Brian Badger collected the sisters and they travelled well and were introduced to their new enclosure this morning.

Female rusty-spotted cats are the smallest of all cat species weighing in at less than a kilo! But the sisters are showing that they more than make up for their small size with their fiesty and lively personalities!

The girls will be spending 6 months in quarantine before they are available to meet visitors.

Also arriving yesterday from Parc des Félins, WHF is pleased to welcome a young female serval named Samia!

She will eventually be a mate for our resident male serval Malawi, however she will be spending 6 months in rabies quarantine before they will be able to meet. Currently she is living in the quarantine facility next the white lion Themba, and spends a lot of time stalking him in true bold, fiesty serval fashion!

WHF Trustee Lynn Whitnall is running the 2011 London Marathon, with her sons Aza and Ty, on 17th April 2011 to raise money for Wildlife Heritage Foundation and President Sporting Club.

Please sponsor Lynn and the boys by visiting http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/whitnalls or email Lynn to make a donation by cash or cheque at lynn@pwpark.com.

Thank You for your support!

One of our Pallas' cat "kittens" Ulan Bator - born to Wei Shand and Tula in May last year and affectionately nick-named "gobby", has moved on to Parc des Félins in France as part of the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme (EEP).

Our general manager Brian Badger transported her to the park in Nesles, France on Monday.

Ulan is a great character and we are sure that she will make a fantastic addition to their park. We are happy and proud to be part of the EEP working to preserve this rare felid and hope to hear about Ulan's offspring in the future.

For further information on Parc des Félins please visit their website at
http://www.parc-des-felins.com/

Our much-loved hybrid tiger, Indy, has gone back to our sister site Paradise Wildlife Park (PWP) to provide company for their lone male hybrid tiger Rocky.

Regular vistors to PWP will know that Rocky and white tiger Narnia were not getting along and had to be housed separately. So Narnia came to join us at WHF, and Indy went back home to PWP.

Indy is a star at PWP as she was handreared there in 1996, her face appears on their signs and vehicles and she is the tiger sitting on their logo! We will all miss Indy very much at WHF but we know she will be very well looked after at PWP and we will be sure to visit her often.

Current WHF adopters of Indy who would like details about visiting her at PWP please contact our admin team on enquiries@whf.org.uk for further information, thank you!

Regular visitors to our sister site, Paradise Wildlife Park (PWP), will know that the white tiger there, Narnia, had a falling out with the resident male hybrid tiger, Rocky. This led to Narnia and Rocky having to live separately. Unfortunately, at present PWP does not have the space to ideally house two separate tigers so Narnia has come back to WHF to live in the empty enclosure in our Sumatran tiger breeding complex.

Narnia previously spent some time in quarantine at WHF in 2007 where she was introduced to Rocky, and we are pleased to welcome her back, but we are giving her time to settle in and get used to the new surroundings and neighbours before she is available to meet visitors. Narnia is not a breeding animal but like all our hybrid tigers we are sure she will make a great ambassador for our site once she settles in.

After the sad sudden death of adult male lion, Thabo, at our sister site Paradise Wildlife Park, 2 year old son Themba automatically became alpha male. As his pride members consisted of his mum and sister, this was not an ideal situation, so a home had to be found for Themba asap to avoid any inbreeding and allow for the introduction of a new, unrelated, male.

On Saturday 5th March, Themba travelled down to his new home at Wildlife Heritage Foundation. He travelled and unloaded very well and spent the evening "chatting" across the site to our three resident male lions, Tiny, Kafara and Manzi.

On Sunday he was given access to his new enclosure for the first time and cautiously investigated all the new sights, smells and sounds. He's a shy cat and alone for the first time, so we are giving him the time and space to settle in before he's available for visitors to see. But we are confident that once he's settled he is sure to win many hearts at WHF!

On the 24th February, our 2 year old male Sumatran tiger, Asu, left home. He has moved to ZooParc de Beauval in France as part of the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme (EEP).

A breeding female will be joining him from Germany within the next couple of weeks.

Keepers from Beauval stayed overnight to collect Asu and meet the WHF team. We hear that he travelled well, arrived safely at his new home in France and that his new keepers provided his favourite meal of rabbits for his arrival!!

We are sad to see our tiger cubs leave us (Asu's brother Bawa now lives with his female Surya at Flamingo Land Zoo in Yorkshire) but we are proud and excited to be part of the EEP working to preserve this critically endangered sub-species and cannot wait to hear the news that Asu and Bawa have produced cubs of their own!

EDIT 06/03/11: Asu was joined by 2 year old female tiger Jambi on 25th March from Krefeld zoo, and the pair were successfully introduced on 6th April. We hope Asu and Jambi are enjoying their new home together!

After much planning and paperwork, and the OK from our expert consultant vet Dr John Lewis, on the 22nd February our 2 year old Amur leopard male, Anuy, headed over to Japan as part of the Amur leopard breeding programme.

We were very happy to be informed that he travelled well and arrived safely at Fukuyama City Zoo, in Hiroshima, on the 23rd February.

This was a landmark event for WHF, the Amur leopard is the rarest of the big cat sub-species with only approximately 30 wild individuals remaining.

This move is one stage in the eventual re-introduction of this sub-species back into the wild, in the Russian Far East, as well as strengthening relationships between Japanese and European zoo associations and breeding programmes.

Anuy will be joined by a breeding female and we hope to hear news of his offspring in the future!

Our popular 4 year old male hybrid tiger Makari has gone on holiday to the Black Country!

Sadly, Dudley Zoo recently lost their Sumatran female tiger, Sarah, and have found themselves tiger-less whilst they await the arrival of their Sumatran tiger EEP breeding pair.

On 18th February, Makari headed to Dudley for 6 months to help them out and be a tiger ambassador for them for over the summer months.

Previous visitors to WHF will know that Makari is a very beautiful cat with a wonderful temperament and gentle personality and already he is winning hearts and making friends at Dudley! We will miss him but we are sure that he will be enjoying all the new sights and sounds and all the extra attention!!

WHF is raising money for the Snow leopard Conservancy.

Three intrepid explorers are heading out to Ladakh, situated deep within the Himalayas. Three members of the WHF team (Beccy, Andy and Michael) are heading out to Northern India to walk from Ladaka to Lei in search of the elusive ghost of the
mountains.

The team have booked the trek through Steppes Travel. The trip is not cheap but the team have already personally funded this. The small team will be led by a member of the Snow Leopard
Conservancy team and hope to see snow leopards in their natural habitat as well as wolves, birds of prey, Pallas' cats, blue sheep and the mountains.

The aim of the trek is to raise awareness about the plight of the snow leopard, create a direct contact between WHF and the Snow Leopard Conservancy and raise funds to split equally between the two organisations.

Please sponsor the team at www.justgiving.com/Snow-leopard-trek-Himalayas. It doesn't matter how small the donation is, everything will help.