Namibia - Day Five & Six

Caracal Walk
After my eventful night with Koos I then had a caracal walk with a caracle called Alex who is tame and ever so beautiful! She has huge pointy ear and eyes. I was amazed at just how friendly she was as well. It was just like a big short haired version of Elmo (my cat).
After muffin break we took the Junior baboons on their walk. They are so much bigger than the babies and toddlers and weigh a fair amount more to when they jump on your shoulders and are a little scarier as you know that if they chose to attack you they could certainly do some damage.

Alex the Claracle

At lunch on the Thursday Nessi and me thought that it would be a great idea to jump into the pool. It was FREEZING, i came up in shock and forgot how to breathe for a moment to but once in the sun it definitely cooled you down.
After lunch we started to did the new trenches for a big baby baboon enclosure as theirs is far to small for them! Who would have guessed just how solid the ground would be though! Throughout the afternoon i gained a lovely temporary tan of dust and dirt as well.
In the evening we were given a really useful talk on photography by Stu. We were told about

• ISO
• Shutter speed
• Aplitude

He also went on to tell us about the 3 line rule, how in landscape you need something in the foreground and how if something is looking in a direction create a space for them to look into, it was really interesting and I was glad I had been to it as I did use it whilst I was away.

Wish Day
Wish day was great as you get to select what you do when its your last day at N/a'am ku se. I chose to do a enclosure patrol, carnivore feed and a game count in the evening which were all really good.

Umbeli the Leopard

Aisha the Cheetah

Kiki the Cheetah

 

Jammu the Cheetah

 The enclosure patrol involves checking the electricity and water levels in all the enclosures along with seeing if any animals had tried to dig out/in of the enclousres. During this time we got to see lots of the cats up close which was amazing these included Umbeli the leopard and Kiki, Aisha and Jammu the     cheetahs. The walk in total was around 6 miles which was quite a long walk to have completed before 10.30 in the morning but definitely worth it to see such beautiful animals up close.

Duma getting angry

Icko the scaredy cat

After muffin break of doughnuts, we went out on a Carnivore feed in which I got to throw large chunks of meet to Duma, Jammu and one of the cubs. You forget just how powerful big cats really are some times but watching them eat you can truely appreciate the size of their teeth and power that they have in their jaws. We also saw Meatball and Gobalina the two lions that if they wanted to they could break through the fence and kill you if they so pleased. This is because if there is a bush fire they want the animals to be able to escape if they had enough will to even though it would hurt being electrocuted it means that they would survive which in theory is a good idea but when faced with a lion who if he is more hungry that his meat slice could break out its a little                                                      daunting.

One of my favourite pictures!

One of the Cubs

Me feeding a cub

After lunch we went out on a game drive on the new property the other side of the road to N/a'an ku se. Game counts involve spotting as many animals classed as game and recording your sitings. At Neuras we did alot more of these (at least 2 a week). On this game drive we saw Springbok, Hartebeast, Ostritches, Warthogs along with some birds such as guinea fowl. The area was really nice with lots of good grassland grazing sights and streams, perfect for African animals.

Liska the wild dog

Meatball catching his meal

one of the cubs 

Meatball shaking his mane & Gobalina

Namibia - Day Three & Four

Induction
Tuesday 11th June was my first real day and it started of by my head being jumped on by 2 baby baboons at 3am due to Koos needing a bottle and wanting to be loud about it so Knoppy woke up too. They then woke up properly at around 6 so luckily I had had enough sleep. After breakfast we had an induction meeting where you are told all about the sanctuary, what animals are there, what they are trying to achieve which somehow lasted for 2 hours and I still don't think I know half of what was said even after being there 3 weeks!
After the induction we helped clean out a warehouse and then had the delightful job of finishing off cleaning the duck pond! Whilst we waited to have lunch we got to play with the merecat and mongooses. After a lovely lunch of chicken burgers and i quick cuddle with a baby baboon we took the mongooses, merecat and warthogs on a walk. Well its more that they go and explore and forage and you get to watch them which is a really nice experience. They are hoping that eventually the warthogs-bacon, choppy and porky, will self release as there are many warthogs present in the park where N/a 'an ku se is. Polo the merecat may end up being like Molly, a merecat that is wild but still lives on the sanctuary. Polo was a survivor when all his brother and sisters were killed. Poor little thing.

Foraging warthogs

Once we returned from the walk we had a talk about Neuras, the place where I spent my remaining 2 weeks  about the work that they do there, the accommodation and things like that. I think experienced my first slightly warm shower. The showers are powered by solar panels and so once the hot water is used up, its gone.

Food Prep
Food prep is the worse job to get done whilst you're at the sanctuary as you have to go through the left over waste food from the bins and separate it out for the animals (very smelly) and then having to mush all the millipat for the baboons but you do get to do some pretty amazing things like go in and feed Samira the 15 year old Cheetah who is 99.9% tame and purs ever so loudly when ever she sees people! Seeing Samira was such an amazing experience as being that close to your favourite animal never feels real, more like you're watching someone else. You can also go in with the 3 cheetah cubs even though they are not tame. Then there is Charlie the orphaned sheep.

After food prep in the morning we took the baby baboons out for a walk before lunch so that they got to play on the tree and then after lunch we took both the baby baboons and the toddlers out to the tree, because the toddlers are bigger and are higher ranking the babies are often a little wary of climbing the tree when many of them are there. Hence the reason they get to go twice. The babies need to learn who the toddlers are though as eventually they will join there group and will be at the bottom of the social ladder. Learning that they are at the bottom from an early age is good for them in social respects too. Once the baboons were all happily back in there enclosure we did evening food prep.

 That evening was the first time i got to go inside with Samira in which there are some strict rules!

• Never turn your back on a cheetah!
• Never go below eye level of a cheetah!
• Never walk away from a cheetah!
• Never leave the group when in the enclosure with a cheetah.

 In the evening we were given our baby baboon induction where we were showed how to bathe them, change their nappies. I then got given Koos for the night. Harriet and Mowenna were at the watch tower that night too so i spend tea with a baboon in my jacket. I gave him his bottle at 7 and went to bed with him at 8. During the night he was an angel really bar putting his arms and legs in my arm pits. I gave him his bottle in the night at 3am. He then continued to kiss and suck my nose even though he had eaten. He finally got up at 7 and was good until Sheila got in a fight with him. Definitely an amazing experience to have with such cute animals,  well cute when they are little!!