Leopards

The Santago Rare Leopard Project was set up in 1989 by Peter James on a secluded three acre site adjacent to private woodland in Hertfordshire, near Welwyn Garden City.  The main objective of Santago is to breed some of the worlds most endangered leopards, including clouded leopards and snow leopards.  There are also some black leopards (panthers), Persian leopards, an African leopard that was rescued from a closing zoo, and a puma.

Santago is not open to the public, but occasionally organised groups of photographers are allowed access.  In late April 2006, Dave and Kate were part of such a group.  Over the course of 1 day, we took over 700 photos.  Here are some of the results.

These photographs were taken either on a Minolta DiMAGE 7i (up to 210mm lens), or on a Canon 300D with various lens up to around 300mm.  They have all been reduced in size for slightly quicker viewing!