Wednesday 31 October

Still pinching myself

I have been here almost a week now and am still pinching myself. While looking out from the office window, there’s a constant flow of animals - Kariba the giraffe, a pair of ostriches, zebras and warthogs. It’s truly a special place and Louise and Andre are amazing people. Their passion and energy that goes into taking care of the animals, working on causes, and working to change legislation is amazing.

I have gotten more in tune with the animals and learned a lesson the first day. When we go to feed the young rhino, we enter the area where some of the animals are running free, so you have to keep a lookout for who’s around. I walked around the rhino enclosure to see where Zacharia, one of the staff, was opening the rhino pen so he can roam around more freely. The next thing I knew, Zak, the hartebeest was standing 10 feet from me and Kariba was standing 15 feet from me on the other side. I knew they had been hand raised, so it was tempting to reach out to them, but as Zak starts approaching me, butting his head with his sharp horns, I realized I better treat them as wild animals, so I circled the tree a few times and after a while he stopped following me. Even though Kariba is a young giraffe, her front legs are taller than I am, and her hooves are pretty big. She finally backed off a bit so I could get around her. So I have been much more observant since then.

Lion feeding

Yesterday was my first lion feeding. There are three prides of lions in separate areas at SanWild. Two dead cows are brought in from a local farmer, and then Zacharia cuts it up in huge pieces. The lions (19 in all), along with a pack of wild dogs, and 6 hyenas get fed every 4 days, and each feeding costs about $1700. The animals know when it’s feeding day and they are there waiting for us. Zacharia throws the chunks of meat over the fence, and each lion grabs a piece and runs off. Sometimes two males get locked over one hind quarter, and it’s like a wrestling match with a lot of growling and some fighting even though there is plenty of meat for all of them. The lionesses, on the other hand, can peacefully share a chunk of meat. The wild dogs are incredible to see up close because of their “painted” markings, as they are very rare with only 400 left in the world. Normally one sees hyenas in TV documentaries snarling and fighting and looking pretty nasty, but these hand-raised hyenas are beautiful creatures, with their striped markings on their legs and dog-like behaviour. A few days ago I sat quietly by their fence and two came out and sat a few feet from me on the other side. I actually didn’t see them being fed this time as Zacharia brought the meat closer to their den which is back in the bush.

Highlights so far

One of the highlights so far for me was having the Thukela elephants cross the road just as we were driving along, who are so majestic to watch. Secondly, seeing the pair of rhinos (twice now), Tsu and Wireless roaming happily around was amazing. Tonga, the hippo loves coming over from his watering hole, and yesterday actually rolled over in the water with all four legs protruding from the water, then later opened wide for us a few times. But I do have a special attachment for Bliksem, the adorable rhino, and fortunately I get to feed him twice a day. He loves having his face scratched and hand feeding him the pellets is incredible, before we dump the rest of his pellets and hay into his boma. What’s exciting is that you never know what you’ll see each day, so I keep my camera on my belt all the time.