Blogs from Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa, Africa - page 3

Up early today because I was taking care of the tiger babies. I wasn't taking this as my day off, and it was nice weather outside so I would actually be able to walk them! YAY! Once I got up there, I discovered that we would actually be taking them to an empty enclosure to let them run around. Just as awesome. I went down to feed Ruby her bottle while Tams put the harness on. I then took her up the boardwalk and helped her into the truck. While driving, I had to hold her by the leash and the harness. Easier said than done, because that leaves no hands to steady yourself during the bumps and I had Judah jumping on my back. It was worth it though, once we got to the enclosure. ... read more

So today I woke up like any other day but I wasn't feeling well so I actually really wanted to sleep and not get up. But unfortunately, that is not an option, so instead I trudged on down to the restuarant. Today was hyena day, so I let the newer people walk them since I have already done it and as they were walking, I went in and picked up the ribs as someone else picked up poop. Once that was finished, they went on down to servals to clean up their enclosure and I fed the hyenas once they got back. The lions were fed an ostrich last night and there were feathers everywhere! So I asked the lion group if they needed any help picking everything up, but they said they were good, so ... read more

Hyena day! I got to walk Ed! Its the first time I've walked anything so it was exciting! He's not a very good walker but we eventually made it through. He just had to sniff everything! The zebra poop, the bushes, my shoes, everythingg! At one point Shanzi got really excited and since she has a faux penis it became erect and she started licking it....quite a sight seeing a hyena give herself a blowjob.... Anyway....once we got back to the restaurant, we made breakfast and then got a talk from Tams. Nothing really, just reminders and stuff. After that, a bunch of people went to the school and to the boardwalk, I was gunna go but there were a lot of people who wanted to go and since I've already been, I decided to stay. ... read more

Because of the high amount of alcohol consumed last night by the other volunteers, the members of my group did now show up to work on time this morning which messed everything up. The hyenas waited far too long to go for the walk because we were waiting for other people to show up. Since they waited so long, they were in rare form and we couldn't walk them because they wouldn't behave. When you walk hyenas, you need to have 2 people walking them and 1 person in the enclosure picking up ribs and changing their water. They get very territorial about their ribs so you always have to sneak them out when they aren't there. They also aren't big fans of people touching their water bowl. I don't know why because we are just ... read more

Today was lion day once again, so I limped on down to the restaurant and went in with the tigers. All you have to do for the lions is take out the bones, rake and pick up poop, they are normally the easiest. But today, we had to rake the entire enclosure and turn over all the sand and it just takes foreverrr! The only good thing is we use red rakes because they don't like the color red so they stay away from us, not like we couldn't handle it anyway, but we could turn our backs to them and we were fine because we knew they wouldn't come after us. The worst part is definitely taking the bones out, they just get so possessive of them that you almost have to sneak them out ... read more