The population of the park continues to grow!
A couple of days ago, Tongs, a rehabilitated cheetah, was found with four small cubs. Tongs was actually taken off her contraceptive implant last year, in the hope that she might have cubs, as when she was released she adapted to wild life very quickly, so should also have good mothering instincts. The father of the cubs is Bones, the same as Dizzy's cubs. I haven't seen them yet but hope to over the next couple of days.
This morning, I was told, along with the rest of the family, to be up at six, ready to drive to a mystery location for a big surprise. Absolutely nobody knew what was going to happen apart from Shanna, Janek and Dan. When I arrived to meet everybody else, near Bush Suite in the 2,000ha, I saw a large truck parked in the bush- inside of which were five giraffe. These are the first giraffe to be released in the 2,000; as far as I know, a bull, two females, a young male and a baby. (I did manage to take pictures but am not sure whether I can transfer them to my laptop yet). I have to say, I'm very impressed with Shanna, Janek and Dan for bringing in a truckload of giraffe without anyone finding out!
Friday 10 May 2013
Sunday 5 May 2013
Diary Entry - Day 80
I realise I have been extremely quiet on the blogging front recently.
There is good reason for this- for over the last week, I have been assisting with sorting out an audit, and have spent all my time in an office, some days working nearly fourteen hours. If by chance you are a lucky person who does not know what an audit is, for your own sake try and keep it that way. I now know more than I ever wished to know.
However after a lot of perseverance, team work and an horrifically unhealthy diet of peanut butter and syrup sandwiches (OK, at times it was just syrup), pancakes and beer, it is over.
I went out on trail this morning, which was a welcome treat, and saw Coco, Bones and Spud, looking very well fed and relaxed.
(My camera has run out of battery, and until I manage to find a charger I can't take any new pictures.)
In ten days, I am flying to South Africa, where I will be work-shadowing the vets at Pretoria Zoo.
There is good reason for this- for over the last week, I have been assisting with sorting out an audit, and have spent all my time in an office, some days working nearly fourteen hours. If by chance you are a lucky person who does not know what an audit is, for your own sake try and keep it that way. I now know more than I ever wished to know.
However after a lot of perseverance, team work and an horrifically unhealthy diet of peanut butter and syrup sandwiches (OK, at times it was just syrup), pancakes and beer, it is over.
I went out on trail this morning, which was a welcome treat, and saw Coco, Bones and Spud, looking very well fed and relaxed.
(My camera has run out of battery, and until I manage to find a charger I can't take any new pictures.)
In ten days, I am flying to South Africa, where I will be work-shadowing the vets at Pretoria Zoo.
Tuesday 16 April 2013
Baby Cheetah
I was woken this morning by my radio (by which everybody on the reserve communicates, as if with a walkie-talkie) at some point just after six. This is not the first time this has happened, and as usual my first thought was "Who on Earth is having a conversation at this time in the morning?". But when the words, "Dizzy has been found with cubs," registered in my sleepy brain, I was suddenly wide awake.
Dizzy is a lone female cheetah taking part in the rehabilitation program at Okonjima. I saw her within my first few days here, and put some good pictures of her in a post from my first week. She had been seen close to Bones, a male rehab cheetah who usually lives with his friends Coco and Spud, a couple of months earlier, and it seems like they must have mated.
One of the guides tracked for Dizzy on trail this morning, and found her off road in the south of the reserve. When he and the guests got closer, they saw Dizzy had three very young cubs with her.
I've spent most of my day watching Dizzy with her babies, or sitting near by to see if she moves around. The couple of photos I took aren't particularly good, because I couldn't get too close- and honestly, I really wanted to watch them with my own eyes rather than through a camera lens.
They are incredibly cute and we all hope Dizzy will be a good mother to them.
Dizzy is a lone female cheetah taking part in the rehabilitation program at Okonjima. I saw her within my first few days here, and put some good pictures of her in a post from my first week. She had been seen close to Bones, a male rehab cheetah who usually lives with his friends Coco and Spud, a couple of months earlier, and it seems like they must have mated.
One of the guides tracked for Dizzy on trail this morning, and found her off road in the south of the reserve. When he and the guests got closer, they saw Dizzy had three very young cubs with her.
I've spent most of my day watching Dizzy with her babies, or sitting near by to see if she moves around. The couple of photos I took aren't particularly good, because I couldn't get too close- and honestly, I really wanted to watch them with my own eyes rather than through a camera lens.
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| Mummy Dizzy watching me |
They are incredibly cute and we all hope Dizzy will be a good mother to them.
Wednesday 10 April 2013
Diary Entry - Day 55
I have been in the office for most of the last week- but Chris gets back from leave on Friday, so I'm counting down the hours until I get more freedom!
On Saturday it was Shanna's birthday, so the whole family had dinner together out in the reserve. First we had champagne by one of the dams as the sun set:
On Saturday it was Shanna's birthday, so the whole family had dinner together out in the reserve. First we had champagne by one of the dams as the sun set:
Monday 1 April 2013
Rain
For the last week, I haven't been out of the office that much because it's been raining a lot - I mean, really torrential electric storms. Main camp had 152mm over a four day period. This is very good news for the reserve, but not such good news for me, as having come from the wettest year England has on record, I'm not quite as excited as the locals. Also, I've found that there is absolutely no way of driving my quad bike through a puddle without getting soaked with muddy water- and there are very, very many puddles, as the roads here are not built for rain!
Last week I went along to watch Wayne dart Penta- it has been decided that she and her cubs will be released here, as we cannot find anywhere else for them to go. She therefore needed a collar putting on, and we took some blood samples whilst she was unconscious.
On Friday, I went for my first bare-back horse ride, which was actually not as wobbly as I feared. Hopefully by the time I leave, I will be fairly proficient!
As yesterday was Easter, I got up very early, at 5.30, to help set up an Easter egg hunt for the Hanssen children. It was pouring with rain, so I commandeered a four-wheel-drive car and made my way up to their house. The children were so excited when they woke up, and ran out into the rain with no qualms at all. After a breakfast of pancakes, bacon and eggs, the sun had come out and we took advantage of the recent rainfall, driving down to a beautiful waterfall that only runs after heavy rain. The children swam in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall and jumped off the top, and after some coaxing I jumped in in my jeans and t-shirt.
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| Examples of the puddles I have to negotiate- and these are far from the worst |
Last week I went along to watch Wayne dart Penta- it has been decided that she and her cubs will be released here, as we cannot find anywhere else for them to go. She therefore needed a collar putting on, and we took some blood samples whilst she was unconscious.
On Friday, I went for my first bare-back horse ride, which was actually not as wobbly as I feared. Hopefully by the time I leave, I will be fairly proficient!
As yesterday was Easter, I got up very early, at 5.30, to help set up an Easter egg hunt for the Hanssen children. It was pouring with rain, so I commandeered a four-wheel-drive car and made my way up to their house. The children were so excited when they woke up, and ran out into the rain with no qualms at all. After a breakfast of pancakes, bacon and eggs, the sun had come out and we took advantage of the recent rainfall, driving down to a beautiful waterfall that only runs after heavy rain. The children swam in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall and jumped off the top, and after some coaxing I jumped in in my jeans and t-shirt.
Saturday 23 March 2013
Diary Entry - Day 37
Quick catch up:
On Wednesday, they finally caught Bwana, the leopard I saw on February 21st. Once his collar had been changed, I went along to see him being released. He was in a box with a wooden door in front of a metal grate. The wooden door was removed first, a which point Bwana started growling- he was in a very bad mood! AJ and Louis, who were releasing him, opened the metal door with a rope, from inside the car on which the box was carried. When releasing cheetah like this, it is safe to open the door by hand, but leopards are too dangerous to do this. Bwana shot out and dissappeared into the bush in a few seconds, with Wayne filming the whole thing from the car I was in.
Yesterday, I went with Louis to find Ishara, Bwana's sister. She proved very difficult to track down, and when we finally did see her, she ran away from the car.
We went to see Wahoo, who is a 14 or 15 year old leopard whom Wayne raised by hand. When he reached maturity he was homed in a large enclosure, where visitors can watch him being fed from a large hide. I actually hadn't seen Wahoo since my very first visit here, in 2008.
In the afternoon we put out some bait at several sites for new camera traps. In between doing this, we went to feed Penta, the mother of five cubs whose picture is on 'Diary Entry - Day 31'. Her cubs are very wild and shy, and are rarely seen, so we were very lucky when all five appeared- they must have been hungry! One especially was quite bold, and another very shy, hiding until we started to drive away. Louis said this is the first time all five have come out in the presence of a car like this.
On Wednesday, they finally caught Bwana, the leopard I saw on February 21st. Once his collar had been changed, I went along to see him being released. He was in a box with a wooden door in front of a metal grate. The wooden door was removed first, a which point Bwana started growling- he was in a very bad mood! AJ and Louis, who were releasing him, opened the metal door with a rope, from inside the car on which the box was carried. When releasing cheetah like this, it is safe to open the door by hand, but leopards are too dangerous to do this. Bwana shot out and dissappeared into the bush in a few seconds, with Wayne filming the whole thing from the car I was in.
Yesterday, I went with Louis to find Ishara, Bwana's sister. She proved very difficult to track down, and when we finally did see her, she ran away from the car.
We went to see Wahoo, who is a 14 or 15 year old leopard whom Wayne raised by hand. When he reached maturity he was homed in a large enclosure, where visitors can watch him being fed from a large hide. I actually hadn't seen Wahoo since my very first visit here, in 2008.
In the afternoon we put out some bait at several sites for new camera traps. In between doing this, we went to feed Penta, the mother of five cubs whose picture is on 'Diary Entry - Day 31'. Her cubs are very wild and shy, and are rarely seen, so we were very lucky when all five appeared- they must have been hungry! One especially was quite bold, and another very shy, hiding until we started to drive away. Louis said this is the first time all five have come out in the presence of a car like this.
Wednesday 20 March 2013
Diary Entry - Day 34
TJ had his post mortem done today. The vet suspects that his head injuries were older than we originally thought, as they were very infected and it seems he died of severe septicaemia. His skin and skull are being preserved for educational purposes.
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