Every day is totally different from the last here. One morning I was walking down from the house to see a warthog chasing one of our workers on his bike, the warthog spots me, does a u turn and then starts chasing me instead, ten minutes later I am sat trapped in one of my friends houses who also cannot get to work for fear of being attacked.
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw
We had to wait for someone to come and pick us up in the car! Flippin' warthogs, all the gumption of a donkey, but with tusks. Apparently all he wanted was some love, but due to his rambunctious nature this has ultimately resulted in his translocation to the other side of the new reserve.
These two (there are three in fact) will be the next ones to grow up and start their piggy cheek!
Well its not often you get the chance to be fair!
Some days are nice and relaxed and others hectic, one Saturday mid April everything was going well, we were nearing Earth Day, so all the volunteers had gone out to pick up trash across the farm and keep our environment clean.
"If we're destroying our trees and destroying our environment and hurting animals and hurting one another and all that stuff, there's got to be a very powerful energy to fight that. I think we need more love in the world. We need more kindness, more compassion, more joy, more laughter. I definitely want to contribute to that." - Ellen DeGeneres
Next thing we had to take emergency action as Kidogo the baby Steenbok, who was recuperating from a nasty run in with a car and whose legs were still splinted and recovering, had a run in with a big baboon, Apparently small antelope have a grass stomach and a milk stomach and baboons sometimes attack them to get to the milk. Action was fast as our Director sewed everything up, as the operation went on the two people who looked after her came in and that is when my heart broke, just seeing their faces, gutting. You form such a bond and take such responsibility for the animals here that when something like this happens it feels so devastating. We were all hopeful, but sadly we lost the little one over night. So sad, especially as the tiny bokkie had so much fight in her.
"We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival." - Winston Churchill
The stars must have had some strange alignment that day as during the operation we got two more calls, a man who had caught a leopard and news that one of our lions did not look well (turns out he was exhausted as both females were on heat!). Its amazing how a day can go from so still to crazy in a few moments.
"The truth is you don't know what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed." - Eminem
We also got a tiny rock dassie (rock hyrax), who still has its umbilical chord. Sadly this little one was too small to make it, but was one of the cutest things I ever saw.
A rock hyrax is like a big rat / guinea pig, but weirdly its closest relative is the elephant - google it if you don't believe me!
If wikipedia says its true it much be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyrax
[pic of full grown dassie]
"If you share a common ancestor with somebody, you're related to them. It doesn't mean that you're going to invite them to the family reunion, but it means that you share DNA. I think it's fascinating."- Henry Louis Gates
That week we received a very small, very cute new baby baboon, Cindy, who has subsequently gone to another sanctuary, the week or so she was here though she was adorable.
"A baby is God's opinion that life should go on." - Carl Sandburg
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw
We had to wait for someone to come and pick us up in the car! Flippin' warthogs, all the gumption of a donkey, but with tusks. Apparently all he wanted was some love, but due to his rambunctious nature this has ultimately resulted in his translocation to the other side of the new reserve.
These two (there are three in fact) will be the next ones to grow up and start their piggy cheek!
Later on we darted the lions in order to clean their camp, I have never been so close to the three of them, huge paws, huge faces, huge evrything ( but amusingly small balls on the lion as a certain someone pointed out and was obsessed with!)
Well its not often you get the chance to be fair!
"Some people lose all respect for the lion unless he devours them instantly. There is no pleasing some people."- Will Cuppy
Some days are nice and relaxed and others hectic, one Saturday mid April everything was going well, we were nearing Earth Day, so all the volunteers had gone out to pick up trash across the farm and keep our environment clean.
"If we're destroying our trees and destroying our environment and hurting animals and hurting one another and all that stuff, there's got to be a very powerful energy to fight that. I think we need more love in the world. We need more kindness, more compassion, more joy, more laughter. I definitely want to contribute to that." - Ellen DeGeneres
Next thing we had to take emergency action as Kidogo the baby Steenbok, who was recuperating from a nasty run in with a car and whose legs were still splinted and recovering, had a run in with a big baboon, Apparently small antelope have a grass stomach and a milk stomach and baboons sometimes attack them to get to the milk. Action was fast as our Director sewed everything up, as the operation went on the two people who looked after her came in and that is when my heart broke, just seeing their faces, gutting. You form such a bond and take such responsibility for the animals here that when something like this happens it feels so devastating. We were all hopeful, but sadly we lost the little one over night. So sad, especially as the tiny bokkie had so much fight in her.
"We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival." - Winston Churchill
The stars must have had some strange alignment that day as during the operation we got two more calls, a man who had caught a leopard and news that one of our lions did not look well (turns out he was exhausted as both females were on heat!). Its amazing how a day can go from so still to crazy in a few moments.
"The truth is you don't know what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed." - Eminem
We also got a tiny rock dassie (rock hyrax), who still has its umbilical chord. Sadly this little one was too small to make it, but was one of the cutest things I ever saw.
A rock hyrax is like a big rat / guinea pig, but weirdly its closest relative is the elephant - google it if you don't believe me!
If wikipedia says its true it much be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyrax
[pic of full grown dassie]
"If you share a common ancestor with somebody, you're related to them. It doesn't mean that you're going to invite them to the family reunion, but it means that you share DNA. I think it's fascinating."- Henry Louis Gates
That week we received a very small, very cute new baby baboon, Cindy, who has subsequently gone to another sanctuary, the week or so she was here though she was adorable.
"A baby is God's opinion that life should go on." - Carl Sandburg
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