Day 1: Wednesday, Feb. 23

Woke up this morning eager to start and get out into the bush. I was exceptionally lucky to start today, as this morning was scheduled for a game capture. I was told these only happen once every week or two, so I was excited to be doing something rare on the first day. We got into some of those open air Land Rovers (the stereotypical safari vehicles) and headed out of the camp toward the reservation. After going through a two-layered fence reminiscent of Jurassic Park, we were onto the wilderness reservation and the bush. We drove around for a bit until we got to an open field for the game capture. We set up a series of nets on fence posts in a crescent shape between two thick patches of trees and shrubbery, and the idea was for William, the game warden, to ride his motorbike around and herd animals toward our net trap. Once the animals got close to the nets (and thus able to see them, I suppose) we were to emerge from cover in the tree clumps and scare them back toward the nets to entangle them. Once trapped in the nets, they would have blood drawn for samples, have a collar checked or attached, etc.



We divided into two groups and hid in the undergrowth on either end of our crescent shape of nets, waiting for William to herd something back on his motorbike. On his first run, he brought in a group of springbok and blesbok - two types of antelope - but they are incredible jumpers. All but one saw the nets and were able to leap over them. The one that ran straight into the nets was quickly subdued by the volunteers, and William was able to extract blood from it and then released it again. On the second run, he brought in a whole herd of blue wildebeest, but they swung wide and missed the nets completely, going around the backside of them instead. We had time for one more run before going back for breakfast, so William headed out again. Several minutes later, when we heard the noise from the motorbike approaching, we got ready to spring out once again. We came out of the trees and bushes and there was an ostrich in full stride, being chased by William on the motorbike. Everyone (but me) had been told how dangerous a pissed-off ostrich can be (long middle claw on the foot like a velociraptor - another Jurassic Park parallel) and I was the one person that didn't turn around and run. The ostrich ended up cutting back from where it came, though. After we were done and circled up talking to the game warden, William said: "Everyone else is running away from it and then I see the bloody Texan running toward it."


After we went back to the camp to have breakfast, my group went out to do some manual labor in the predator camp. This shift, we had the unglorious task of weeding around the electric fence around one of the two tiger enclosures. If the grass and weeds grow too talk, they can intertwine with the electric wires and, if it rains, decrease the voltage running through them. We spent around two hours weeding before we got our side clear and were allowed to go play with the cubs before lunch. As I mentioned in the last post, there are 2 lion cubs with 2 tiger cubs in the "Cubs Crib," with a tiger toddler in the next cage over. The cubs are all separated from their mothers after about 6 weeks so that they can be raised carefully by the wardens. All four of the cubs, but especially the Bengal tigers, are adorable. They're aggressive because they're wild animals, but they're still babies and like to come up and play with you. They'll slide past you and hop into your lap like normal house cats would though, and they'll bite and scratch the same if you make them angry. We played with them for a little while before it was time for lunch.


After lunch, my group went back to the predator enclosures to meet all the various grown-up tigers. The two tiger parents, Jasmine and the male, have an enclosure to themselves. Their three adolescent cubs have a separate enclosure next door. There are also four lion enclosures (one for the pair of white lions, then a male one and a female one, to prevent interbreeding, and then a third one for toddlers that aren't old enough to breed yet) and a cheetah enclosure. We went into the lion toddler enclosure to play with them first. They are like the cubs in that they are still anxious to be played with and like human interaction. However, you have to give them a lot more respect than the cubs, because by this stage they're already 100+ pounds and very forceful animals. Next, we went into the white lions enclosure with William, the game warden, as he is the only one able to instill the discipline needed to interact with the grown-up animals. The white lions, Simba and Nala, are fully grown but are kept to themselves because of their unique breed. Thanks to William's presence, they were able to lounge around and let us pet them and take pictures. It's ironic how, with a single jab, they could take off an arm, but if they open their mouth as if to bite, William just smacks them on the forehead and they back off, whimpering. After the white lions, we went into the adolescent Bengal cages and met the three tigers born on the reserve. William warned us that letting a tiger get you on your knees or back is a death warrant, so we kept having to kind of shove them off if they wrapped an arm around your ankle as if to pull you down. But once again, William instilled a discipline in them and they were all very well-behaved.



After dinner, we settled in at the volunteer lodge to watch a movie and sit around and chat. It was a pretty uneventful evening of reading out on the porch and stargazing. A very quiet evening, until, while I was watching soccer with some of the British guys, we heard a ruckus amongst some of the geese out in the camp. Spice, one of the bengal cubs, had apparently climbed out of the "Cubs Crib" enclosure and was trying to play with the terrified geese. None of them were hurt, however, and they had Spice returned to his cage in no time. Went to bed around 11 to get ready for another early start the next morning.