Group 4 22/4/08
I had a shock this evening when I went to feed Lost, the young leopard, in her enclosure. Gommie was in there! We soon realised that his house was in there too and Lost had been moved into her big enclosure, all in order for Easter and Indi-the mum and baby vervet monkeys-to have more space in Gommie’s old enclosure. Over the past week, the baby has been exploring more and more on his own and even coming to see guests at the front of the cage. Although his mum has become extremely protective and will give anyone who looks at him for too long a warning face and noise.
Bambi the duiker was released this afternoon onto the runway, his old enclosure can now be used for a new animal arriving sometime this week. A pangolin, an extremely rare animal to see and looking somewhat like an armadillo. It walks on it’s hind legs using it’s big tail for balance and having a similar diet to an ardvark-termites and bugs. With any luck, I’ll get to see it before I leave next week!
Group 2 Diary 25/4/08 Jessica
Last night I slept out with Cleo and Pride the two young cheetahs. I took with me a matress my own sleeping bag and an old Harnas one to put on top of me to keep me warm during the winter night and to try and prevent my own one from getting covered in cheetah pee. My friend Fabienne took two old ones- a good idea!
We lay down with some space between the matresses where we put old towels. Pride came over to me immediately, licked all over my face with her very rough tongue and bit my ears gently. I think she was happy to be back from the vet and enjoyed our presence. She had been to the vets in gobabis for two days with a bad tooth which had to be removed.
Finally Cleo came over and both laid down beside us, Pride then decided that she wanted to lie on top of Fabienne and purred loudly in her ears all night, she did not sleep very well at all! She was also woken up in the night by a wet face, one of the cheetahs had peed on the top of her matress and it had leaked down into her hair and on her face. But the one thing she was happy about was that she had used two old sleeping bags and not her nice new one. Once she had dried off as best she could she lay back down expecting the cheetahs to now lie with me the rest of the night, but they both returned to her, she loved her night though!
In the morning when we woke up, the cheetahs licked us all over the face again and then started playing with each other. We took our matresses back and Fabienne took her wet sleeping bag to the washing. What a wonderful night!
Group 4 Diary-26/4/08 Louise Pruce
We finally finished the new cheetah platform! A week ago we noticed that the feeding platform in the five cheetah’s enclosure was rotten and on its last legs, so the decission was made to demolish the existing platform and build a new one from scratch. Initially, progress was slow, with the holes being dug and posts put in over two days, but yesterday everybody helped. One group collected rocks and another sand for filling the huge gap inside the posts, while the third wrapped wire and plastic lining around the entire structure to hold it in place. After one long, hot afternoon of filling a hole ten foot by 5 foot and four foot deep with rocks and sand and alternately pushing and pulling the tractor out of the soft ground. At last we had a brand new cheetah platform.
The top was smoothed, the steps complete and we ended the day with a beer, watching the Namibian sun sink over the bush.
In the next few days, a plaque will be errected on the platform, signed by every person who helped in some way. Like so many things here, we proved that with initiative and hard work, anything is do-able.
Group 4 Diary 21/5/08 Louise Pruce
Today I was lucky enough to go on a cheetah run! The 2pm meeting had us all sitting under the big tree on the lawn to sort out who was going to do what. Myself, Hat and Rachel opted for fence patrol. We drove out to Duma and Joanie’s walk enclosure as game had been spotted in there and needed to be driven out and the hole fixed. When it came to it, only one kudu was found and easily chased out. As there was a european film team with us at the time, making a documentary on the volunteer programme here at Harnas, it was decided to bring Duma and Joanie out for a cheetah run. Getting the cheetahs into the car was slightly tricky, as the five cheetahs next door decided to come and have a look, but soon we were driving back to the enclosure with them both and the bottle of stones for them to chase. With Marcel in the back of the landrover and the three of us standing beside the camera, the car took off, with Joanie going first. With Duma being the older and more practised of the two she was able to keep right up with the car, but watching the incredible speed and agility with which she ran-and not even as fast as she is capable of-was amazing. Joanie actually caught the bottle held by Marcel and he let go of it immediately, knowing that if it had wound around her legs it could easily break them.
Both cheetahs had some good exercise and stimulation, the film team got their footage (some incredible shots) and we had a rare chance to see a cheetah run.
Group 1 Diary-Hat Hewitt
When I arrived on Harnas in the middle of February, Klippie the baby giraffe was three and a half months old and only about a foot or so taller than me (5feet 5inches). She had arrived on Harnas in November at just six days old-from a nearby farm.
From all the stories I had heard about how difficult she was to feed at first, I would never have guessed she was the same giraffe today. She must, without a doubt, be the greediest animal on Harnas-with only the baby baboons being an exception. She is forever traipsing after me if I’m eating an apple or carrying Boertjie’s fruit bucket over for one of his 4 feedings.
I remember, from the day I was ‘given her’ by a fellow volunteer-Amy-I fell in love instantaneously. But I must admit, it wasn’t as easy as it is now-ten weeks on. Other than during her morning and evening feeding of cows milk, five to six litres, it was difficult to get too close to her for too long. Over the weeks however, she has not only grown over a foot in height, but has also developed into a much loved personality-by most. She is often seen poking her nose over Jo and Schalk’s garden wall or chasing Samar and the many dogs around the garden. And if you look around at the trees and bushes at the lapa, you’ll see that she has eaten every leaf off of almost all of the trees, but only up to as far as her long tongue can reach, you can probably imagine how funny some of them now look. I have also taken to hanging off of some of the branches in order for her to get some of the higher leaves of her favourite trees. It always makes me think of an interesting fact I was told by an old volunteer-every foot in height a giraffe grows, their tongue grows one inch-so if the anmount Klippie has grown in the past ten weeks is anything to go by, then I imagine all the plantation she eats will be bare within the next ten!
There have been moments in the past where she has worried me however, usually due to her gluttony-for example when I was feeding her one evening, I noticed milk pouring down her chin, unusual for the greedy animal, that’s when I relaised that she had sucked the teet completely off of the bottle! I yelled over to Frikkie “she’s going to swallow the teet!” frikkie of course laughed at me, so I jammed my hand down her throat to try and retrieve it but was unable to keep a grip on it due to her very slimy saliva. I spoke to Marieta the following morning and was told to keep a close eye on her for at least three days, to make sure she was eating, drinking and pooing. I must have checked every piece of giraffe excrement around the garden for at least that long but still to this day-three weeks on-I have never found that teet or anything even resembling it! Luckily there are no lasting effects and she is still happily wandering around the lapa garden, munching on the folliage, with the hope of being released onto the runway with the other giraffes within the next few months.
To be continued...
