Eagle Heights

Eagle Heights is a bird of prey centre in Kent, a dozen or so miles from where I live. They also have reptiles and are starting to build up a mammal collection. They don't have charitable status, and often receive animal donations from big animal charities like the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Protection of Animals) without receiving any funding to go with them. It's a pretty hands-on place, with quite aggressive birds giving displays within feet of family visitors. You get to handle snakes after lunch, which is pretty cool.

Some of the birds were not on their best behaviour. One falcon went on a flyabout, almost disappearing from view, and it took ages for them to get her back to try and catch the lure - food on a string that they spin around to get her to show how she catches prey.

Sometimes birds take off and disappear for days (one huge condor went missing in a rapeseed field, and after 36 hours they had to call out a helicopter to help them find him). Sometimes the birds do what nature intended and swoop on any suicidal pigeon who happens to pass nearby.

This is one of the Harris Hawks, standing on a picnic table in the main show area.


The Tawny Eagle was out with a variety of very large storks and other scavengers.


The Barn Owl is like a silent little ghost.

This is one of the many condors we saw today. I lost track of all their names.

The Golden Eagle was out all through lunchtime, flying free, and eventually landed on the roof near us.

The coatimundi is regarded as a pest in South America and people kill them for raiding dustbins.

The latest addition is a two-year-old cheetah, who is being trained to show hunting behaviour. She was born with deformed back legs - apparently because there is a shortage of cheetah DNA varieties in the world, caused by the last ice age. She was operated on and now appears normal, but she has been spayed so that she cannot breed, for fear she may pass her deformity on.

I have only ever seen cheetahs on TV before. I knew they were smaller than tigers, leopards and lions, so I expected her to be quite small. She is MUCH larger that I thought she would be, and she is magnificent. Soon they are going to be offering "Keeper For A Day" sessions, and I think I absolutely MUST do it, 'cos you get to go in with her.