‘Staying for two months on the expedition allowed me to get really immersed. It was an incredible place and the landscapes were so different.’

Eve Hills is a PhD student at the University of Brighton currently working on leopard prey and habitat preferences in the Meru Conservation Area, Kenya. Big cats have always fascinated Eve – ever since coming on expedition with Biosphere Expeditions. So, what was so significant about this first experience?

‘I went to Africa for the first time in as a young child and instantly fell in love with the continent and wanted to come back,’ Eve Hills recounts. ‘I had a passion for big cats from a young age and did everything in my power to include them in any school projects.’ Five years later, she came across Biosphere Expeditions, ‘via one of the first expeditions to Poland to research wolves. In those days, Matthias (Dr. Matthias Hammer, Biosphere Expeditions’ founder and executive director) ran most of the show, so I was able to talk to him about my dreams of wanting to do something with big cats. In the end, I was sick and could not make the wolf project. Then, in 2002, a cheetah project came up in Namibia and I was really excited. I saved all my money and wanted to do the whole thing, which lasted two months.’

Eve immediately fell in love with the entire experience. Staying for two months gave her a unique perspective. ‘I think this allowed me to immerse myself completely. It was an incredible place and the landscapes were so different. I just loved sharing my environment with big cats, knowing they were there. I don’t really need to see them. One of the most special things for me was when we tracked leopard prints and it was just incredible following in the animal’s footsteps. I remember collecting all the sand from one of its paw prints. It was really amazing. I loved feeling part of something. ’

After Eve came home, as with so many people, life got busy and she was ‘side-tracked by a job that had nothing to do with conservation.’ She also had to contend with a partner who thought she ‘should get a real job.’ However, she never forgot about those beautiful moments on expedition and did whatever she could at university to include big cats in her projects. She continued pursuing this passion into her master’s degree when she, ‘ linked up with some cheetah conservation organisations based in Kenya and intended to do a cat project.’

So now Eve is a PhD student studying leopards. As for the future of her relationship with Biosphere Expeditions, she says, ‘I’m hoping to get involved with another project and I’m keeping my eye out for any leopard-related projects.