For the very first time, Dudley Zoo is giving animal lovers chance to get their paws on artwork by their tigers; Daseep and Joao.

To mark Global Tiger Day on Sunday, July 29, keepers have turned their paw prints – and a terrific tail print – into souvenirs to claw in funds to help tigers in the wild.

Some Sumatran tiger tracks have been made into key rings and others put into large magnetic frames which, throughout the weekend, will be sold in aid of WildCats Conservation Alliance – a charity which supports wild tigers and Amur leopards. Big Cat Keeper Cheyenne Darkins, came up with the idea to capture the tiger footprints by getting Daseep and Joao to walk through black and gold paint and then stride over a length of wallpaper. She said:

“It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be and the tigers weren’t at all phased by the experience. They walked straight on to a piece of cardboard covered in paint and then continued across the wallpaper, leaving behind perfect paw prints.

“It wasn’t until we took the paper out of the enclosure that we realised we had a print of Joao’s tail too, which was fabulous.”

Over the weekend there is a tiger cake raffle, tiger talks at 1pm and games to win a meet and greet experience on each of the two days. Winners must be aged 16 or over to participate in the meet and greet, or the experience can be exchanged for a tiger adoption for anyone younger.