Advertisement
Published: August 3rd 2009
Edit Blog Post
Just a Few Weeks Old
And about the size of Rosco Wilson. Good think Rosco won't ever be 6000 pounds! Bud and Robertta left for Tanzania this morning, so they had to wake everyone up to say goodbye. I was up super late burning CDs for them, so I didn’t move. Still, it wasn’t near as much sleep as I wanted or needed. Sarah and I got all of our things packed up and ready to go.
A former Choir kid, Charles, was due to pick us up for a day on the town. After a bit of rearranging which hotel we were staying at and who was booking rooms, we moved our luggage down the street and hit the road. Andrew was our driver for the day.
Our first stop was the Elephant Orphanage. It is a rescue for baby elephants and rhinos that have lost their mothers. They are only open from 11 to noon daily, and very strict about that. A surefire tourist trap, there were mzungus from all over the world there to view the baby behemoths. The handlers brought 9 or so small elephants, some as young as 6 weeks old, and they were excited to have their bottles of milk. Our guide explained to us that they must be fed every 3 hours
A Few Months Old
Is he picking his nose? of a mixture of milk that took 28 years to develop. Then he told us the stories of some of the babies. It was cool to hear, but I felt he added in a lot of things. “This baby was stuck in the mud and his mother couldn’t do anything, and he still has the image of his mother walking away from him burned into his mind.” “This baby’s mother had to leave him in the well because she couldn’t lift him out. The mother walked away very sad at leaving her baby behind.” One baby tried to sneak in and steal a bigger one’s bottle, but the larger one screamed pretty loud and got him to go away.
These babies left us, and the older ones came out. These were between 8 months and 2 years. Again, we learned lots of stories and facts about the animals. There’s one small elephant who is missing his tail. Apparently her mother died, and hyenas were trying to eat her body, but the brave baby kept chasing them off! When the rangers came to save the baby, it chased them too. Once the elephants left, a 6-month old rhino came out
Orange Horse
or albino zebra? to visit! He was tiny! Just about 2 feet off the ground.
Our next stop was the giraffe park. We went up on the deck, and Daisy was right there, in your face. We gave her treats and petted her, and then gave her big kisses, and she kissed us too. Don’t worry. Giraffes’ saliva is antiseptic. (Didn’t know that, did you?) We fed the baby too, and took lots of pictures of the others out in the field. There was also a warthog (think, Pumba) running around.
We learned some interesting facts about these amazing creatures. They only drink water once a week, and must do it very quickly. They drink 50 to 70 liters in 10-15 minutes! If they wait too long, with their head down so far, they will faint. A grown giraffe’s heart is 2 feet by 1 foot! They only have teeth on their bottom jaw, and with those teeth, they eat about 60 kg of leaves daily. To balance their weight and height, they walk moving both left legs and both right legs at a time. Perhaps the most interesting thing, though, is that they never blink, in their whole life. Sleep
is done standing, with eyes open, and only for 5-30 minutes a day! In the wild, their lifespan is about 10-15 years, because eventually they go blind. There is no shade tall enough to protect their eyes from the sun, and once they go blind, they’re as good as dead. The ones in captivity, like this sanctuary, live as long as 30 years because they caretakers make sure there are tall trees around.
The three of us went on a walk through some other part of the sanctuary and had a guide, who read every sign to us. He also showed us a leopard trap. The leopards come over from the neighboring Nairobi National Park and disturb the giraffes. They bate them with a live goat, and capture them so they can be rereleased into the park.
We found a burger joint for lunch. It was good. I got a chicken burger, which looked yellow, but hit the spot. Our final stop was at a place where we could do a “walking safari” and see lots of animals. It was sort of like a zoo. I learned a lot, and saw some cool things.
On the way
6 Month Old
Black Rhino home, we passed by Kibera slum. It’s one of the most famous, mostly for its size. In about 5 square miles, 1.2 million people reside. I can’t even imagine something like that.
The rest of the evening was spent in, in a hotel room with only 2 occupants (novel concept.) The boys and Chelsea flew home today, so it’s just Irene here with us. I took a much-needed nap, and then we had dinner. Tomorrow should be fairly laid back too, with Wednesday set aside to prepare to come home!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.16s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 6; qc: 24; dbt: 0.1393s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Julie
non-member comment
Beautiful pictures
Great blog entry, and I LOVE the pictures you took of all the animals! I am going to Kenya in November, and was just browsing some blogs of people who have been to Africa. Just thought I'd comment your pictures! :)