Watch Your Back!

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So I reached Hunters lodge. I was preparing myself for haw bad it was going to be.

I was shown to my room. I had a room to myself! With HOT water in an ensuite bathroom!!!

Such luxury is easy to get used too and I made the most of it.

The first day I met the other volunteers and just settled in.

Then came my first day with the Lion Cubs and after a brief tour and a quick introduction to the guides I was started work with the cubs...

Daily life, once again followed a simple routine:

6.30 To the rehabilitation lodge for a 7 am walk.
Breakfast at 9 then either enclosure cleaning/feeding & meat prep (yuk)/behaviour enrichment
Lunch at 12, when we could go into town
3 pm walks
Home at about 6pm.

On top of this we had cub interaction with the baby cubs we had too look after.

The first couple of weeks were spent settling in and getting to know the cubs and to get used to the process.

We also went across the border into Zambia to football against some school 'kids' (they were bigger than most of us and had their own team uniform) and then at netball.

After the first couple of weeks I realised that I had started to behave like a cub myself, in little ways, like growling at things and greating people by headbutting them

I even went as far as trying to bleach a gotee under my chin white, like the cubs!!!

As for the cubs themselves...

The 3 N's T-Jay, Beka & J-Leigh

These cubs are about 10 months old and are just below knee high. T-Jay is the most approachable, followed by J-Leigh and Beka ... well you had too make sure she was in the right mood.

I didn't really get on with these cubs as they were too afraid of me most of the time for me to approach safely.

T-Jay is also not the brightest of lions. We laughed, on more than one occassion, when he ended up chasing his own tale for about 5 minutes. He just kept going round and round and round........

Known as the 3 N's as their mother's name began with an N.

The 2 N's: Narnia and Nala

The two baby cubs we had too look after were 3 months old and very cute. However normally a cub is taken from its mother at 3 weeks, that way they come to associate humans as part of their family allowing us to teach them how to live on their own. These babies were taken at 3 months. The result? two cubs that were very, very skittish and moody. (Normally they jump all over you)

That didn't change how adorable they are.

Narnia is the bigger of the 2 and also the bravest. She would do some thing fist with Nala watching her with a 'What the hell do you think you're doing?' expression. Nala would later try the same thing if every thing was okay.

On my first day I went into their enclosure at lunch time and sat their talking to them, then stroking them as they went to sleep. I notoced Narnia's eyes start to move rapidly. I then noticed her claws going in and out. We think she was dreaming of hunting...

Feeding these two milk was also fun. It waqs the only time you could actually touch them with out them running away.

Initially we fed them out of bowls laid on the ground. Then we tried putting the bowls on our laps. Nala wouldn't drink from it, but Narnia ended up in my lap one day, lapping up the milk and spraying half of it over my clothes at the same time.

We eventually figured out that Nala preferes drinking from a bottle. This was also the only time we could touch her under her chin.

Appart from that there was also a couple of instances that spring to mind.

We once walked passed their enclosure when they had finished fighting. The two of them were stood side by side heaving their breath in and out at exactly the same time.

Also one day I bought a squeeky dogs toy. Narnia took a great interest in it. She picked it up, in her mouth, and bit into it. She then jumped back as the toy let out high piched squeek...


The 2 P's: Pheonix and Penduka

These two almost have the same birthday as me! They are about 13 months old and come up to almost mid thigh height.

Phoenix is the bigger, more assured one and Penduka (means Come Back in the local language) is the one with very light eyes and the one who always wanted affection.

Easily my favourite cubs.

The first time I met them they stayed away. The second time I met them Penduka came up to me first rubbed his head against my leg and trid to trip me up. Phoenix then came up to me rubbed hes head against my stomach and then tried to bite a chunk out of my side!

These two I got to know very well, to the point that Penduka tried to shag me one day when I was lying down!

With these two you had to watch your back as they would take any opportunity to start a play fight with you.

One of the things I enjoyed the most was chen I met them before a walk. I could kneel down infront of them then one of them would come up to me and greet me, making lots of MMMM'ing noises (means their enjoying the attention). If you were giving Phoenix attention then Penduka would also want a lice of the action and you could easily end up trying to control two lion cubs that were liable to start play fighting at any moment rubbing themselves all over your body.

Penduka also has favourite places. He in particular liked climbing one tree and going to sleep while balanced on one of the branches. He got so possessive of this tree that he would jump ant any one that got any where near it before he did. Some of the takles would make most international rugby players proud. Especially the one where he lept at some one two meters away who was fortunately watching and bolcked him in mid air.

These two could also tell if you were a client of a volunteer/guide. As soon as the clients turned up they would start to lay in the shade and do nothing. As soon as the clients left they went hyper.

I tried to spend as much time with these two as I could. I even debated the idea of taking them with me.

There were tears when I had to say good bye, and even as I'm sat here typing this almost two weeks later I still want to fly back to Zimbabwe and start playing with them...

After a month I had to say my goodbyes to every one and give my feed back then it was the mad 3000 km dash across Africa to Mombassa to meet the expedition group.

I enjoyed my time here and in Zimbabwe in general and intend returning, despite the fact that organisationally there is alot that needs to be improved on.

I intend adding an entry on how to behave like a lion cub, as soon as I've finalised it. The way they behave is interesting to say the least. However I'm now about to spend 5 weeks on an island with no electricity, so my appologiies for the long wait, b ut I know it'll be worth it!!!

Bye

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