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Published: August 1st 2012
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So today was my first day on tigers, because my real first day would have been my day off. I was all alone in my group today because Natalia and Chantel were in Jeffrey's Bay, they had left yesterday for the night, they were supposed to be back for morning feeding but I guess they weren't. Also, it was Pascal's day off for the week. So I get up there at the right time and am just watching the big ones when Tamz comes down to see me. She says I don't need to walk them because I'm by myself and its a pretty crappy day out anyway so they probably wouldn't behave. So Tamz said I can just wait till everyone else gets down here. When everyone else arrives, Emily says she'll help me because its really not a job for just one person. So we change the water, pick up poop and bones and then we're all set. We're about to head up to the restaurant but we see that Yara is struggling with the hyenas. Apparently, on their way out, Shanzi followed her and grabbed the meat bucket and wouldn't let go. She couldn't get it out and
when she tried to take it, Ed jumped in and freaked out and bit Yara on her hand and legs. Both Yara and Ashley squeezed out of the enclosure before being attacked again and Emily ran to grab Tamz. When she got down she said we needed water to pour on their heads, so Tamz went in there with a bottle of water and chased Shanzi to get the bucket back. Shanzi thought it was a game so it took a while but eventually Tamz got the bucket back and we could go up to the restaurant.
For breakfast we had scones, they were really plain, I put jam on it but I still didn't like it, probably because I also don't like jam. Oh well..
For project time we had to clean out the leopard enclosure, we aren't allowed in with the leopards because they aren't very friendly so Delano had to bait them into their smaller enclosure while we went in and cleaned. We had to pick up bones, take out bad plants, make sure nothing we touching the electrical fence, because otherwise it makes this annoying ticking sound, we also had to pick up poop
and scrub their water bowl and refill it. The worst part for me is probably still the poop. The smell is just so gross, its weird because I'm totally fine with touching bones now and meat but I still can't do the whole pick up poop thing. While we were working, we had to watch out for Ella, the female leopard because she likes to dig and she can easily dig out of her small enclosure and then we'd all be screwed, but thankfully she didn't. 😊
That was all for project time, so we went back up to the restuarant and ate lunch, and after lunch we had a TON of handlings so there really wasn't much time to chill with the animals. During handlings the volunteers must check the animals to see if they are okay for the public to pet them, protect the public incase anything happens, which it normally doesn't. All we really have to do is stand between the animals and them so the animals come at us instead. There are usually 3 people in a handling, unless there are more than 3-4 people going in at once, if there is a group of
5 or more, they must go in separate groups. One volunteer talks to the public, while one takes their pictures and the last one is basically on lookout. Most of the handlings are with the lion and tigers, I don't think most people know how adorable hyenas can be. Their loss. The prices here are wicked good too. Its only 70 Rand to go in with the lion which is less than 10 dollars! Its about 30 bucks for the tigers. Also available for handlings are servals, black leopard and hyenas.
A lot of the volunteers were hungover from last night, which I just find hilarious, they just showed up during the day when they started to feel better. One exciting thing that happened today was that I went with Ashley, Josh, Emily and Alex to feed the big lions. We walked down to meat prep and got in the pickup, one of Seaview's workers put meat in the back of the truck and we drove over to the enclosure. A guy opened the gate and we drove through, he then opened the back gate to the truck and put the meat on the very end, closed the first
gate and opened the second and we drove right through the enclosure. The lions just grabbed the meat with their paws off the back of the truck, I had to turn to see it, but it was pretty awesome. They didn't want to grab the last piece so we had to sit there for a little while but they eventually took it off. Then one of them was eyeing the back of the truck as if it wanted to jump in, and Alex goes then it'll be just like the Hangover, but with lions!
The leopards were also fed today, kind of undid all our hard work but oh well, we'll clean it next week. It was pretty funny, they had to be locked in their small enclosures again and the food hung in the tree. When we let them out, they weren't as savage as you would think. Louie jumped at his and then ran away to Ella's and then decided he didn't want that either so he went back to his own. Once Ella was let out, she got hers out of the tree and bit it one, but then started licking it. It was a strange
site, I took a few pictures, so check em out. Once we began to leave Louie started to pounce on his, maybe he just had stage fright.
After dinner, I had another grilled ham and cheese, a bunch of us got together and watched Wedding Crashers. It was so cold and I was so tired that even though I was in the cabin the whole time, I'm pretty sure I fell asleep in the middle of the movie and woke up for the credits because I have NO idea how it ended....
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Mary Mueller
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fabulous!
Allie, thank you SO much for all your wonderful blogs! You are so great to take the time to write such marvelous descriptions and they all have been fascinating to read! Such memories you will have! Take precious care - am so happy for you - such an adventure! Love, Mary xoxoxo