We are happy to welcome to a new blog writer for the small cats. This determined man has an amazing life working with small wild cats around the world, and he’ll be sharing his adventures with us on a regular basis.
Hello to all my fellow Felid lovers reading this blog My name is Ricky and I am a Zoologist & Zoo Keeper from London, UK.
I have had a huge passion for wild cats from a very young age and have been privileged to have been working alongside them and many other animals in Zoological collections for the past 10 years through work experience, voluntary, seasonal and now permanent work.
My specialism is cats both big and small, but it’s the smaller, lesser known species that really get me excited. Theres so much to find out about them!!
My goal is to become a captive cat specialist one day, and part of that goal is my wish to spend time working with/observing captive individuals of as many cat species as possible. This means that I do a lot of travelling far and wide to see and spend time with some amazing species which unfortunately not much is known about.
The way that I am able to go on these trips is because I save up what I earn at work… I’m a very determined person and when I hear of a species at a collection I put myself in contact with that collection and go from there.
I have been very lucky (and persistent) and have been able so far to have spent some amount of time working with 31 out of the 37 known wild cat species and have been invited to various collections across the world to spend time with 3 more!
I am going to be telling you about a few of my recent trips across the world to spend time with rare small cats in future blog posts.
I hope you enjoy,
Ricky Reino
PantheraofNature
It is very gratifying to learn of your dedicated work.