Volunteer Experiences
Author: Lydia Ho
Placement: 1 month at placement 0020
Period: June 2007
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Just to start off, everyday is an adventure. Not one day is the same as another. To put it into retrospect, in all my life and in all my travels, I will never have another unforgettable experience quite like this. I have been very fortunate to come when I have. It’s been such a pleasure to watch the 3 lion cubs grow up in the past few weeks. Just to see their personalities come about, but most of all to be able to observe them develop their life long skills driven by pure instinct. Techniques like muting or the throat grab was astonishing to see them perform on a carcass they were feeding on at an early age of 3 months. Adorable as they are, they cannot take away the spotlight from JJ the male lion, and Scar the lioness. To watch them bond as a pride and their interaction as a family with JJ playing around with his cubs as Scar watches closely with her motherly instincts makes you realize that maybe they aren’t too different from us. Even watching the cheetah having a meal on a small duiker was quite the sight.
But
not all exciting things happen with just the carnivores. One of my favourite things I got to participate in was buffalo darting. 3 buffalos were being transported and we got to observe and even assist the local wildlife vet. I was able to inject the buffalos with 2 shots each, but most of all would you believe that it took 14 grown men to carry each buffalo to the transport truck?! If that’s not mind- blowing enough, try having a 35 year old elephant bull walk by you inches away from the Landrover. Or even listen to the herd of elephants trumpet when they got reunited with each other. But even the simple things like the anticipation of setting up a trap cage for the aard wolf and waiting to see what was in the cage or to see who was nibbling at our bait was more than enjoyable. Even helping out the local community when SPCA came to spay and neuter the local community’s pets was very rewarding as we managed to get over 111 pets done in a span of 2 days.
However, as much fun as it is during the day, night time is something else. Camping out in the reserve under the African sky and let me tell you there is nothing quite like the African stars, was a whole new experience in itself. Listening to all the different nocturnal animals calling to each other like the jackals or sleeping by an open bonfire all night long is now my new definition of camping out. On top of that in spite of everything we get to do, we have some classroom time which isn’t really what I make it out to sound like. During the lectures about elephants, carnivores or even animal behaviour we are enlightened by all this information and facts that I find I am able to retain simply because I am out in the reserve day and day out and see and do things firsthand.
So if
I had to say one thing about my stay here, it is that you never
know what to expect, but whatever the turn out is, it will be one unforgettable
journey.