The penguin, oops I mean Pangolin

Aside from the amazing girls road trip, here is what the last few months have contained...

Hansi the little baboon has improved and improved and is healthy enough to go in with the other babies in the new baboon enclosure in the day now. He has palled up with Mina and Kimi really well and his black gorilla hair has gone really light- little silverback :0)


"I feel more comfortable with gorillas than people. I can anticipate what a gorilla's going to do, and they're purely motivated." - Dian Fossey 

One night when I last took him Frankie and Donsie pitched up at the house, I had seen them in the bush the day before and told them they didn't visit enough and had to come to the house more often, next day they were there (I also had the feeling they knew I had been harboring a new baby and came to remind me where my priorities lay- with them of course!) 

"The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves." - William Penn 


Cheeky boy!

Found out a week or so ago he has that abscess back on his face again...

...a few of us have taken a look at the little munchkins face and it seems to have healed, we will keep our eyes open though as its the second time he has had the problem.

Frankie and Donsie are both growing up. Donsie loves her cuddles still, but Frankie is getting older and wilder. I think his hormones may be kicking in now as the last few times I have seen him he has kicked his heels up and received a smack on the bum for kicking out - yesterday he was not too happy with being told off, so flounced off into the bush and I had to reunite him and Donsie before I left. Maybe he is hitting the age where he wants to challenge me for dominance - could be fun!!?!!

"At a certain point, even if the one alpha male is dominant, at a certain point there's a younger lion that is stronger, and everyone knows it."- Josh Lucas 

A couple of months back we got a pangolin in, I have always wanted to see one after meeting a researcher in solitaire in January who was studying them. Sadly people believe in the healing properties of their scales or like to eat their meat and they are now really rare to find. Someone was travelling through Okahandja and was offered this one, so bought it to bring it to us. We released him a few days later - amazing creatures!

"This ant-and stone-swallowing uninjurable
artichoke which simpletons thought a living fable 
whom the stones had nourished, whereas ants had done
so."  - Marianne Moore

I spoke to mum one night on skype and was telling her about the pangolin- the conversation went something like this....

me: we got a pangolin in the other day
mum: ooooh, where is it staying?
me: in the round concrete enclosure, well it was, we just released it

mum: really?

mum: where did it come from?
me: a man bought it and brought it in
mum: really?
me: er yes
mum: where did you release it?
me: just into the bush
mum: REALLY?
me: errrrr yes
mum: you released a penguin into the bush???!?!!
me: a what?
mum: a penguin?!
me: no, a P A N G O L I N
mum: a what?
me: a pangolin (explains creature)
mum: oh, i thought you said you released a penguin back into the bush
me: where would we have got a penguin from?
mum: the coast, it could have gone off track
me: from where? Antarctica?!

Our weekend on system changed a few months ago and now instead of one weekend on one off its one on two off, which gives us more down time and is great. As such the team is now split three ways, which makes the weekend busy to cover everything, but also it means as we are covering more across the team we get a taste of other peoples roles, which I like. 

The last couple of weekends on have meant I have had to do more on the wildlife side as well as the office,i its great - popping out to feed our three cheetahs, patrolling the border fence (and seeing my babies) helping with the carnivore feed, organising an eco-challenge for the vols on a Saturday afternoon, dropping food down to the San community in the reserve village, monkey sitting all four baboons, a mongoose, a springbok and lali the dog - that got interesting as all the sheep and goats ran into the area with lala barking and Tipsy (springbok) running round and the baboons terrified - only so many arms to hold animals in!

My job has been quite busy over the last few weeks too, with big presentations for big corporates and foundations, people leaving, new staff about to arrive and always plenty to do.

"Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety." - Francis Bacon 

A month or so back our Director got called out of the Saturday evening braai due to poachers, I was hoping to get a lift home, but we didn't really have time so I ended up going out too. We drove fairly fast (white knuckle) to get there and he climbed through the fence and disappeared to find one of our colleagues on the other side of the fence, I sat on our farm and waited, hiding in the car. They were found and scared off - we didn't manage to apprehend them though. After all the drama, we realised my biggest use in the situation - I had brought the beer!

“But I found signs of their trespass: a burned patch planted with a fistful of grain, a tree felled or stripped of fruit, a deer strung up in a snare. I never saw a poacher. They were too cunning, and for cause: the foresters would take a man's hands and eyes and leave him to the mercy of the wolves for such an offense. It was bad enough to steal the king's game, but snares were an abomination  The gods abhor weapons that leave the hand, coward' weapons such as javelins, bows and arrows, slings. No man or beast should die by such means.” ― Sarah Micklem

The rains have started here, slowly, but they are here and things are coming to life - here are some critters I have found in my bath tub recently...

Scorpion

Nursery web spider (huge)

earwig, thought these were solifuges for the longest time.

I have also had some more pleasant visitors to the house recently...

As I tried to clean the kitten did this at EVERY step - ha not so easy, perhaps I should just give up cleaning?!

Meanwhile out on the lawn

What have they seen?

Other kitten came to join us

And the cows joined the horses on the lawn.

This weekends activity was a snake presentation, I went into town to pick up the handlers. They were terrified we would be caught with snakes going through the road block, but no need to worry - I was more terrified of the snakes getting out or rolling the car and ended up in a snake entanglement! Here are some cobras and puff adders and mambas for you...

puff adder

zebra snake (too venomous to get out of the box)

rock python - stunning

Shield nosed cobra- coiled to strike

"There's a snake lurking in the grass." - Virgil

Massive black mamba, so big the vols were told to move back - the way its curled is all through muscle, this is one dangerous snake!

And finally, some Sunday baboon fun....

lekker little baboon groom

One of the vols threw the bucket in with senior baboons whilst throwing over the corn-accidentally. I told her she had to go in and get it, once she went white I let her off the hook- as if we could just wander in and take the bucket back! ha!

Finally I had to steal this pic of Shauna from facebook - she looks so cool with her hat and shades :0)

Shauna says 'Stay cool and have a good week'

"The time to relax is when you don't have time for it." - Sydney J. Harris