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Published: July 25th 2012
Hey everyone!
I just posted pictures to my latest post, so be sure to check them out!
As for yesterday, sorry I'm behind, but you'll soon find out why I am so tired and can't stay up to post!
Since it was my first day, I didn't have to wake up for the morning feedings, I just had to be to the restaurant for breakfast, I had rice krispies, but they only had full cream milk. gross! Anyway, after breakfast, Tamz, whos in charge of volunteers, led me and the 3 other new volunteers around first we went to the lion enclosure, there are 4 lion cubs that are 9 months old. Their names are Judith, Joseph, Josh, and Jason. Joseph (i think) is the special one. I guess he was the runt of the litter so he still acts like a baby, a very big baby at that! He still gets a bottle, whereas all the other lions are off the bottle. Don't get me wrong though, he still loves his meat! They were all really adorable, but they also have ADD so if you see them staring at you, and you can kind of get a
feel for whether the stare means they are gunna pounce on you or not, you have to clap and say no, but be very forceful about it. You can also eaasily distract them with your foot, if you just stomp on the ground. They can easily sense fear so even though I'm really nervous around them, I have to stay calm and cool. You also always have to have more than one person in the enclosure at once, it's better if you have a few, that way someone can always watch your back. If you see them staring at someone else you have to distract them from that too, but it doesn't happen too often, a few times in an hour maybe. Also, you have to approach them from the side or back, but never the front. Lions are pretty chill though, all they do is lay around and nap all day.
Next we went in with the tigers, Amber and Or, who are about 10 months I believe so they are really big, but they share the enclosure with Judah and Ruby who are 7 months, they're pretty small and adorable. They have ginormous paws though so they
clearly will be huge! We all sat down with them and as Tamz was talking to us about them, Judah starting sucking on my finger, it was certainly very different and so cool! I mean seriously who else can say they've had a tiger suck on their finger? haha But I learned that you must never turn your back to a tiger and much like the lions you can't be in the enclosure by yourself. They also stare at you before they pounce so you have to stand your ground and say no, in a strong voice and even take a step forward, if they do try to jump on you you have to shove them off, which is kinda scary because you would think it would easily take that as a threat and jump again, but that doesn't happen. They are more active than the lions, but still pretty lazy. There are all sorts of toys for all the animals to play with though, plus eachother. All the lions and tigers want to do is play, they don't actually want to hurt you (these anyway) but they don't understand that we aren't as strong as them and can't play
like that.The lion and tiger enclosures are right next to eachother and connected by a gate that they find ways to push through, Judith is the one who normally goes to see the tigers because she grew up with them so they like to spend time with eachother and play. If its night time, we just let them chill where they are, but in the morning we have to get them to the right enclosure which can be quite an ordeal because of the tourists. That usually involves trying to trick them or grabbing them by their scruff.
After the tigers, we went on over to the hyenas which are so adorable! Definitely my favorite! You'd think that they are ugly and stupid like the lion king but they really aren't. When you go in the enclosure, you talk to them like babies and say something along the lines of where are you puppies! all excitedly. If their tail is down it means they are calm and okay to stay with but if their tail is up, you should really leave. Talking like a baby can calm them down, but because I'm so new I should leave. There are
two hyenas, Ed and Shanzi and because they can be so tempermental, you must have 3 people in the enclosure at all times. Ed sucked on my finger the whole time we were in there. He is so stinkin adorable and hyenas have gorgeous eyes. Shanzi didn't really like that I was giving Ed all the attention so she ended up biting me after a while, but Tamz calmed her down. I think Ed is going to be my big baby for the next month. Both Ed and Shanzi fell asleep sucking on peoples fingers, it was so funny, but man they really don't want to give them up! They don't bite you for taking it away or anything but the suck harder so you can't get it out lol. Fun fact about hyenas, the female ones have psuedo penises but are a different shape than the males.
Also on the park are merekats, there are 4 I don't know their names though because volunteers can't interact with them because they bite too much, I do know there is one that only has 1 arm, her name is Tinky. They are really cute, they get fed neat but if
we find any bugs, we are supposed to bring them to 'em because they really like them...just like in the lion king! but you have to make sure you have two because otherwise they will fight for them. There are two mrekat enclosures, each with 2 merekats in them, they can't be integrated because they grew up separately and probably won't get along.
Finally, there is a black leopard, Shadow, who has his own trainer, I guess. Her name is Melissa, and she is interning here from the states. She's gone today because someone was wearing a red jacket, which one of the lions didn't like so he jumped on the girl and Melissa tried to intervene and got bitten so she had to go to the hospital. We went in with Tamz though and Shadow was so adorable! Lots of energy but know how to be adorable. He gave me kisses and he has such a rough tongue! I though he was going to take skin off! but it was still pretty awesome. Shaai came in to take pictures and Shadow used me as a launch pad to jump on him! He knocked him down, but it was
still quite an experience!
With all the animals you can visit during play time, the more you talk to them, the faster they'll get to know you, but I just don't know what to talk about!
We also have baby owls, who I guess are cool, but don't really do much. As well as a caracal, Kenny, I haven't met him yet. Apparently he's pretty chill and during play time you can go in there and just read a book and he won't bother you as long as you don't go in his territory (his little hut). There are also two servils who are basically bigger domestic cats, they are chill too. I like them. We also have crocodiles, obviously we can't go in that enclosure, and they only get fed once per month. Finally, we have Mube the bush pig. He gets all the table scraps from the previous day's dinner, and that days lunch. He's got a wicked thick skull, hard as a rock! I knocked on it. We aren't allowed in with him but he has a low barrier because he can't jump. There is also a stick that stays at the enclosure so you
can pet him and have him feel it. His skin is legit like straw its crazy
After our tour, it was lunch time, we had beef, corn, green beans, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. After that, a school came for tours, there were 250 kids! Each tour was about 20 kids a piece, me and some of the other volunteers were outside looking at the water when the buses arrived, they were so excited to see us! They started waving and yelled through the window "you guys are pretty" It was adorable!
Then we went to the animal enclosures for playtime so I went over to the lions. I don't think Judith likes me, she jumped on me and scratched me. One of the other volunteers said she was just sizing me up because I was new. Then I went over to the hyenas to see Ed again. But then we all got called up to the restaurant. We were going to go see the grown lions and tigers that are in a different area of the preserve. We all piled into the back of the pick up truck and drove down. These animals were SO big and beautiful!
Ashley, a guy who works here has been working with animals since he was 13 so he was able to go in with the grown ones, as was Tamz and Josh but no one else was because we weren't experienced enough, but it was still awesome. There was a group of 5 lions that had just recently been brought there so all the old volunteers were able to go in, but not the newbies, so hopefully next week I can go in. 😊 Theres this one tiger who grew up in the wild so he in not as tame as the other ones so even Ashley doesn't go in there....Ashleys so good with animals its so impressive and amazing to watch. Luca (the wild tiger) was kinda okay when Ashley was staring at him, but as soon as he turned his back to walk away, Luca charged at him and bit the fence, it was crazy.
After that adventure, we came back and made dinner for the animals. I crushed chicken necks to feed to the owls...Then it was our dinner time, Kitty, thank god is a mom from Texas who loves to cook, so she made me and
a few others burgers and french fries. Talk about all american dinner haha. Then we walked back to the cabin, showered, put a bunch of layers on, (it gets about 30s during the night and there is no heat) then we went to the communal cabin and a bunch of us just hung out and talked, we were supposed to watch a movie but we couldn't get it to work. Oh well.... But then it was bed time and oof! what an exhausting day.
...My blogs'll be one day late, until I have enough time to catch up!
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Vicki
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OMG I love this photo how cute!!!