Rhinos back together again

A slow day when it started. I could not get a good sleep last night off and on. Started daily routine around 7.00 AM and went to feed the Meerkats and other animals. After feeding, we drove with large water tank to change the water in lion enclosures, mongoose enclosures. Around 4.00 I was on my way back home, when Louise came by and we went for a game drive. We tried to locate elephants but again they were not to be seen. But today we are very fortunate to see the white Rhino pair together after a gap of 8 days. That was a great feeling to see them together. I took few great photos of Sunset, Rhino pair, Giraffes and different antelopes.

Seems to be more relax day. Went with the feeding work and after completion came back to camp for lunch. Afternoon Louise’s daughter returned to Johannesburg. Evening I just relaxed at the chalet

Andre returned from his trip and was great to see him again. I enjoy working with Andre. He is power house of information. Louise came to pick me up at camp and while driving to office we saw at least 10-15 vultures sitting on a tree and that usually is a sign of animal dieing or already dead. Vultures are masters of scavenging and anytime you see them either animal is dead or killed by predator. Vultures act like clean up squad in the jungles. They eat the leftovers/dieing and decaying meat and thereby help in preventing spread of diseases. Vultures are 100% scavengers whereas Hyenas, Jackals are very opportunistic hunters as well as scavengers. Vultures/Hyenas, Jackals and other scavengers are very important part of circle of life. Without them this life & death relationship is incomplete. They may not be the best looking animals or birds, but their place in animal kingdom is as important as others.

Louise mentioned that last night, on neighboring farm, poachers had killed another Kudu bull, for the meat and I felt very sad about it. I wish I could do something there.

Poaching and legal systems

Poaching is like stealing and not severely punishable under any human legal system in many countries. The maximum punishment is a fine and/or couple days behind bars and then bailed out. Many poachers in this part of world get free within a day or two after caught in act of poaching. They either bribe or have high level contacts. Next day they will be back poaching again. Irony is poachers even if they have killed animal, will not be sentenced unless farm owners prove they were poaching on their farm. This is just like in the human legal system it is up to the prosecution to prove the guilt. In this system of poaching no animal life is safe. But you shoot a poacher you will be jailed for murder unless proven that you were shooting in defense. But the same poacher is jailed for only 2 or 3 days for killing a Kudu or any other animal.

Look at this; if you are caught stealing money or anything that is important to mankind, I guarantee you will be jailed for months or probably years. This is another evidence OR proof that we humans don’t value animal life.

This also explains why animals are more afraid of us and why occasional attacks do happen.

Nature always tries to maintain balance but we have tipped the balance so badly that even divine powers are about to fail in front of humans. I am dead sure whoever created man and animals at the same time, must be regretting in some way. My thoughts expressed here are not generalized but they are more applicable to those who are involved in ruining the balance of life.

But you know what, I have believed in one thing. There is some unknown power watching everything that is happening and one fine day we are going to see a severe punishment from him. To me, whether it is the Lord Ganesh OR Allah OR Jesus, whoever he is, severe punishment is due for poacher when they face up to him.

Louise and wildlife education

Louise is amazingly intelligent and knowledgeable about wild life and I was about to learn some serious lessons from her later in the day. I am now very comfortable about feeding schedules to bird, Meerkats, mongoose and Bliksem. Today Louise did say that we will keep Bliksem’s enclosure open and was very happy to hear that finally day has arrived Bliksem will walk free. We gave him the food and opened the enclosure gate. 2 hours after that we realized my buddy Bliksem was still in the enclosure. After returning from lunch Mr. Bliksem was still thinking whether to go out OR not. Around 4.00 PM we decided we will try to free Bliksem tomorrow.

While driving back home, I again mentioned to Louise that I wanted to try remove my fear of lions and that’s when Louise gave me all the serious education about wild life. In a very serious tone said it is good to have fear of wild animals and nothing wrong with it. Although some may be hand raised, please note they are still wild.

This was like a divine education for me.Let me start by saying it is absolutely good to be afraid of wild animals. If some one is not there is something seriously wrong with him/her. I realized that I was trying to make a silly/stupid mistake by getting rid of fear. It is okay not to have any fear of flying, driving at speed, bungee jumping etc. But not having fear of wild animals can lead to deadly situations. Reason is wild animals are supposed to be wild. They will attack if we push their buttons. They are programmed by nature to defend. Even if we happen to stray into their territory by mistake, mind well they have not attended any school/college to tell us in plain English, “PLEASE DO NOT COME CLOSE TO US”. They are taught to attack or fight and all those lessons they learnt were for either for finding food/defending the territory or fighting enemies and competition.

Animal attacks

PLEASE note; All the animal attacks that happen are either mistaken identity or in defense. No animal will attack on purpose. Even in case of man eaters, attacks happen because predator has lost the ability to hunt stronger prey and to them humans are the easiest of the prey species. This is again, hunting to survive. It is a hard life for any animal in the wild. In wild world it is a daily struggle between life and death, who eats and who gets eaten. They are far from being safe if we decide to poke our nose and alter this cycle.

Contrary to that in human society so many needless murders happen across the world, either for money, drugs, gang wars or some political situations.

There is a thin line between adventurous and being silly when working with animals. Please do not take things for granted. The biggest mistake we can make is to become overconfident, casual and walking up to them, when consequences can be deadly. Who pays the price for our mistake, the poor animal with his life OR possible life long stay in cage or the foundation like SanWild or the animal handler with multiple law suits.

Let me say here if something were to go wrong in my situation, it would be 100% my mistake. All the wild animals’ films on TV are good on TV and for education only, but in real life situation it is better to afraid than sorry.

SanWild an education system

I have always maintained that SanWild should be looked at as an education institution for wildlife and not as a picnic spot or zoo. I guess I forgot that soon but learned in as much quick time.

I have heard some stories that people have looked at SanWild in very different and casual way. Let me say to all those who may happen to read this, Please do not forget that WILD ANIMALS are the ones who are the driving force behind this. Let us respect that and keep some space and avoid any ugly incidences to put everyone in SanWild at risk. Think of animals first and then ourselves. Reason we have SanWild is to learn and if we forget that than it is better to be drop out.

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