Meerkat families

This morning was the usual feeding of the meerkats, mongoose and Bliksem, the rhino. There’s a family of meerkats with four young ones that are in an enclosure, and then there’s another mother with 3 very small babies. The babies are finally walking around on their own now and coming out of their nesting area. The mother runs around the office compound (among several buildings) and every few hours we take her back to her babies to nurse them. She’s such a sweet thing and it’s so adorable to see her come bounding over to visit you while you’re making the rounds.

Next we needed to change the water for the lions and wild dogs who are out of range of their watering system. We bring a huge tank of water out on the back of the pickup, and then Zacharia goes into the enclosures, sweeping out the scummy water, brushing clean the concrete holding basins. Then we attach the hose to the tank and put the other end through the wire fence and the basin is filled. Some of the lions come around to see what’s going on, and although they were just fed the day before, we are all on guard for him, as you can see some of them get into their stalking pose. These lions are such regal creatures – some of them have black manes, which make them even more magnificent. Their coats look like they were brushed every day.

Goodbye Sunil

Sunil left for the airport this afternoon - he bonded so much with the animals during his 2 ½ weeks here, he was very emotional saying goodbye especially to Bliksem and the mother meerkat. But he’s coming back again in June so he has that to look forward to. You can see from his diary entries how strongly and passionately he cares for the animals. I learned a lot from him and hope I can carry the torch for him while I’m here.

If a hippo charges

For a few days we had tried putting some of Bliksem’s food outside his enclosure, so he will be free. We would coax him to his gate, and he knows his food is there, but at the last minute he’d turn around and run back to his boma. We tried this several times but he wouldn’t step outside in the bigger world, although he was released a few weeks ago, but after one day outside, he never ventured out again. So this afternoon Zacharia and I go to give him his evening meal of pellets and hay, and he’s nowhere to be seen, so he had finally left his enclosure. Zacharia saw which way his tracks went so he headed in that direction, and we called him. Then we heard him snorting in response and he came lumbering out of the bush. Needless to say, I was safely back by his enclosure watching Zacharia try to bring him back in. He didn’t want to come back in, so his food was left there. I truly think that when we were coaxing him, he felt it was a trap, so didn’t respond. He finally came out when he was ready. We all feel that Bliksem knew Sunil had left so came out looking to say goodbye one last time. He stayed out all night and his tracks showed he walked part way to our camp, again, probably looking for Sunil.

It’s one thing to be told that a human can’t outrun these animals, but it’s hard to believe that these animals, like the hippo, are so huge, with short stumpy legs can run that fast. However, once you see them running, you can see their power and speed. Albert, the anti-poaching ranger, took Sunil and I on a bush walk the other day, and he said that if a hippo charges, you should jump over any obstacle like stumps and fallen logs, because he will have to run around those and it will buy you more time. Good thing to know in this world!

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