Ancient Skills with the San Bushmen

On Monday we got the opportunity to visit some San Bushmen and learn about their culture and heritage. I’ve seen enough local tribes in Thailand, but this was something absolutely different. Their attire, language, behavior, and traditions definitely support what you see in documentaries about the Bushmen. 

Along the tour we got shown how they used different plants for different reasons. The root of one plant was used to heal TB, but it depended on wether you were a lucky or unlucky person. Another plant was used as soap, but also to strengthen the poison of the arrows they used to kill prey. A the tip of the arrows was covered with mashed up insects (found on an Amura tree) and mixed with the plant to kill an animal within minutes.

We also got shown how the make fires and got invited to try it ourselves. Although I was quite confident it would be easy to do…I failed… Miserably! Much to the amusement of the Bushmen!

Take a look at the photo’s as I believe they tell more than words!

The Bushmen

Women Attire

Talking about the Plants

The Poison Arrow

Into the Bush we go!

Bushmen making a Fire!

Me Attempting to make a Fire!

See if you can spot me!!!

One Joins, One Leaves

At a wildlife century with hundreds of animals we often receive new animals, and unfortunately see some leave this planet.

Little Emma

Last week we get the call that we would be receiving a baby baboon. Its mother had been shot and the baby was taken and sold on the street. Some good samaritan bought her off the bastard (mind the language!) and called Na/an Kuse to get the baby baboon. As sad as the story goes, its always exciting when we get a new baboon joining us, and at just 2 weeks old, baby Emma was cute!! She will need 24/7 care for the first month, this means that during the day she is in a baby sling with one of us, and at night she sleeps with one of the coordinators. Hopefully she will have a nice future here at the farm.

Little Emma!

Goodbye Meatball

A couple weeks ago I shared a photo of Meatball the male lion. He had been on the farm for over 10 years and was one of the first residents. On Saturday during a routine carnivore feed he did not show up (which is quite rare). Later that afternoon a tour guide who was showing guests (who sponsor Meatball) around the enclosure, and spotted Meatball under a tree, lifeless. Meatball lost his life. His genitals got bitten off by a honey badger and unfortunately the wound never healed, leading too kidney failure.

Once we received the call, the 4 of us male volunteers  and Cila (the farm director) headed to the enclosure to retrieve Meatball. Another group went to the other side of the enclosure to lure Gobbalina (the female lion) away and keep her occupied whilst we got Meatball. Upon seeing the such a magnificent creature on the floor, we all felt a bit of sadness. The 4 of us then carried him up onto a pick up truck (he was very very very heavy) and took him out of the enclosure. It felt surreal sitting next to this creature, expecting him to wake up, but unfortunately his fate was already decided. 

We took him back to the farm to let everyone else have a quick look and say their goodbyes and then proceeded to take him to the freezer at the lodge. This was done to preserve his body until we could get a vet over to perform an autopsy. It was a sad day here at the farm to see one of the world’s most beautiful animals pass away, but thats life.

Goodbye Big Boy!

Week 3 Highlights

As the week’s pass by its hard to release that I’ve been in Africa for 3 weeks!! It feels like yesterday that we arrived here ( yeah, yeah very clichè). Like I said before, everyday is different, and every week new things happen, so here are the highlights of this past week.

On Saturday we had our fun activity of the week; Na/an Kusè’s Got Talent! In a group of 5 people we hard to make a song, sell two random products, and bake a desert using the ingredients given to us. My team followed the jungle book rhythm and produced and amazing song… making fun of all the coordinators. The products we had to sell to the judges was an eyemask and a chewy dog toy in the form of a… cucumber ;) We ended up selling these products as a thong and the dog chewy toy as… I’ll leave that to your imagination! We also completely burnt our desert on the campfire but regardless we went deep into the night with the bar open till midnight and karaoke on as well!

Play Time during the Baboon Walk

Omnomnom

Wanna Fight?!?!

They love getting in your shirt

Hannah with her friends!

Research

On Monday, my groups activity was research. This meant going out into the reserve to track down Puff Adder snakes and the resident cheetahs. The snakes have a tiny antenna glued to their head whilst the cheetahs wearing a tracking collar. Using a VHS receiver we tried to find any signal of any of the animals, which turned out to be a success as we caught the signal of one of the Puff Adders. The reason we conduct research on these snakes is determine whether they have a sense of territory or if they migrate during the year. Once we caught the signal we followed the source till we spotted our friend! We then noted the gps coordinates and added to the system. Once back on the farm, we did some different research in the form of going through 18,000 camera trap images taken all over Namibia. These camera traps are often place by marking trees (cheetahs mark their territory by scratching a tree), wild dog dens, and various other locations. If we spot some significant we add it to the database to get a sense of population size and migration.

Tracking the Cheetah

Rise of the Planet of the Baboons.

So, picture this; after a long days work you finally relax at the lapa and play cards (whilst everyone else has gone to bed) and all of a sudden you see 10+ baboons running towards you! Well this happened on Tuesday. The electricity of the enclosure of the junior baboons cut, which tempted them to jump over the fence..which they gladly accepted. Although this was not dangerous, it started to turn into a nightly happening. Once the baboons escape at night there is no way to get them back, so we were told to go to our rooms and but chairs in front of the door. These guys are absolutely reckless!! They were very eager to get into our rooms (they can open the handles), two of them eventually got into my room and jumped right under my blankets… Apparently they are quite scared and seek light/sound/companionship. From Tuesday onwards towards 9pm the baboons escaped and caused havoc. Although staff tried to identify how they could get out (given that the electricity was back on again) no solution was found. At night you can hear them on the roof run from one side to the other (yeah… not getting much sleep). In the early mornings, Johannes (A bushmen who has worked at Na/an Kuse for 15 years and is dominant over all the baboons) gets them back into their enclosure by shouting at them and throwing stones etc. As I’m writing this right now, the baboons are still coming out at night… lets hope this changes soon. 

PS. Being locked in your room with baboons looking inside your windows and trying to get in really makes it feel like the movie!

And so it Begun

Dramatic Photo

I was going to add more to this weeks happenings, but given the severity of the other 2 events, It deserves it own post!

Always Something Different

Every day here at Na/an Kuse is different, whether it be the activities we do, the things we see, or the unique moments we experience, you never know what the day will bring. Since I have arrived 3 weeks ago there have been a couple of unique happenings here at the farm. So here they go!

Warthog Autopsy

It’s never nice when an animal dies, but when they do die the vet here performs an autopsy to discover the cause of death. In my first week, 2 warthogs had died and thus we got invited to join the autopsy. MY GOD!! I didn’t think something could smell that bad! As the vet slowly cut open the warthog and its intestines we start investigating the cause of death (While trying not to throw up!). Eventually after discovering blood in the intestines and a uniquely dark color, the cause of death was due to eating poisonous grass. Although this might not seem to exciting, watching an autopsy in the clinic was definitely interesting. For your sake, I won’t post any photo’s of the autopsy as its…well…quite bloody! After the autopsy the warthogs were thrown into the freezer and fed to the wild dogs the next morning!

Caracal Release

On a Wednesday night, Stu, Head of Research, got a call from a farmer that he had caught to Caracals that went after his livestock. Luckily/Unluckily my group was scheduled to conduct with research with him the next morning, which meant we would join him to go get the Caracals at the farm. This meant that we had to get up at 4am on the Thursday morning and head out to the farm which was a 5 hour drive away! Once there, we discovered the caracals and moved them to the cage we had brought with us. Another 6 hours later and we were back at the farm completely exhausted! The Caracals were a mother and son who were fully fit to be released the same day on the farm. Along with Marlice (The founder) we drove to an obscure area of the sanctuary to release the caracals. Although it was a long ordeal, it was definitely another unique experience to release these creatures back into the wild. 

The Caracals Ready to be Released

Leopard Chase

Another evening we had received news that there was a wild leopard roaming around the University of Windhoek! Thus, like we do most of the time we jumped in the pick ups to try and catch this dangerous cat. For those that don’t know, leopards are extremely dangerous (more than lions) so this was quite urgent. After securing a perimeter we slowly closed down on the leopard until we spotted her. After 2 failed dart shots, we finally got her and moved her to the pick up. Once we were back at the farm we put her into a temporary enclosure before the planned release into the wild a few days later. This was meant to avoid the leopard going straight back to the university and cause more chaos. We would also put a tracking collar on her so that we could use her for our research projects. The next morning as we went to feed her we found a hole in the enclosure and no leopard….!!!!! Leopards are very smart and this one was very determined to get out, so she bit through the metal fence and left Na/an Kuse. This had never happened before, but also meant that Stu had to make the awkward call back to the University saying the leopard was most likely back on its way!

Zebra Castration

At the Sanctuary we have dozens of wild zebra walking around, we also have Frankie, a Zebra that was hand raised here at the farm and lived with some donkey on the other side of the sanctuary. Zebra’s cannot be tamed, and with the human contact Frankie has in the beginning of his life, he was not afraid of humans which meant problems. Whenever on horse game counts or if we drove past with the pick ups, Frankie would charge at us. At 5 years old, the decision was made to castrate him in order to calm him down. So in the morning a horse vet and a wildlife vet from Windhoek made their way over to Na/an kuse to perform the operation. Us volunteers were invited to watch the operation and give them a hand when needed. After darting him and giving him anesthesia the vets proceeded with the operation. All I can say is that it hurt to watch!!! As he sliced open the genital region we grabbed the first testicles clamped it all the way down and then with another sharp clamp he cut them off :O You could hear the crunch noise he cut them off! Within 10 minutes Frankie was castrated! Here are some of the Pictures!

Before the Operation

Guys....Look Away Now!!!

Just for you!

Frankie waking up

Carnivore Feed

Another activity on our work rota is carnivore feed. Along with the 30 cheetahs, we have 3 leopards, 5 lions, 16 wild dogs, and 5 caracals that need to get fed. These guys are spread out around the sanctuary and are accessed by car. Unlike the animals that are on the farm with us, food prep does not prepare food for the big boys (carnivores!). The carnivores eat horse, wether it be lunges, hearts, livers, it all gets fed. As you can imagine this can get quite bloody!

After chopping up a horse, we get in the back of a pick up and head to the different enclosures. Feeding these animals is such a cool experience, especially the lions who are massive!

We also spotted a little surprise during the feed, check the photo’s to see if you can spot it!

On Our way to the Carnivores

Nice Piece of Horse Liver

The Wild Dogs

Can you Spot it?? (Ps. Leah you would die!!)

The Leopard

Meatball the Lion

The Cheetahs

So I’ve written a post about baboons, so now its time to tell you about the cheetahs. We have 30 cheetahs here in captivity in several different enclosures. Most come to Na/an kuse because they were either hunting livestock and caught by farmers, or treated very poorly and as a result taken to Na/an kuse. The reason there are so many here is that they cannot be released back into the wild. Since they are so used to humans, they would not fear them in the wild and would most likely end up getting shot. Whilst in captivity cheetahs also lose some of their defense instincts, which again would most likely see them killed.

The Semi-Tame Cheetahs during the Cheetah Run

Little Shiloh

Selfie!!

Such a Beautiful Animal

The Cheetah Run Set Up

The Cheetahs here are classified into 3 categories; wild, semi-tame (humanized), and tame. There are a couple wild cheetahs in the reserve that we track, but the majority are semi-tame. This means that they are used to seeing humans but not fully tame. These Cheetahs are held in large enclosures around the sanctuary, and often show their faces when we feed them. We also conduct a daily activity called “Cheetah Run”. In the cheetah run we go inside the enclosures and set up a 200 meter square using rope, a wheel is then connected to the rope which then pulls a rag around the square ( similar to greyhound racing). The cheetahs then run around in circles trying to get the rag. This activity is done to stimulate exercise and movement!

Taking the cubs on their walk (in the back of the pickup)

We are also activity involved with the tame cheetahs, which there are 7 of. We have 3 cubs; Shiloh, Wonder, and Odyssey. They get taken on daily walks which is part of the process to tame them. To tame a cheetah, they need to receive a lot of human attention and interaction. Thus, just like you walk a dog, we put the 3 cubs on a leash, go for a 10 minute drive, and then let them explore a bit. It is definitely a great experience taking the youngsters on walks and spending time with them during animal time.

Quick Stop!

Just Like Walking a Dog!

Grrrr

Just Walking My Cheetah!

Curious little fellows!

Living in Namibia

So it's Monday today and i've been here for exactly a week, which gives me enough time to accurately write how it is to live in the middle of nowhere! The first couple of days were definitely an adjustment period, but give it a week, and this feels normal now. I normally wake up at 7am, get a quick bite for breakfast and then start the morning activities at 8. There are two very important times here at Na/an Kuse, 1pm and 6pm... also known as lunch and dinner time!! Working the whole day makes you verrrryyy hungry so when the clock strikes the hour everyone runs up and lines up to get their food! Which till now has been very good, everyday we have something different, and most of the time it's very tasty. 

My Daily Sunset Views

After having some lunch I usually read a book for while, play with the baby baboons, or take a nap (when needed!). Then we resume with our afternoon activities till 5pm and head back to shower and get ready for dinner. As the sunsets I again read my book, write my journal, eat dinner, and play cards with some other volunteers. Although there is a campfire, I don't often see myself sitting around it and chatting with the older fellows. At 8.30 I often head back to the tent and watch a short tv show before I call it a night!

Taking Frodo for the night!

Differences between here and the real world

So after a week i've noticed some difference in lifestyle.

1. You will always have scratches, cuts, wounds, bruises, etc. whilst in the bush. My lips are as dry as bones, and my skin as burnt as toast (ok ok i might be exaggerating a bit!).

2. If you are scared of insects/bugs brace yourself! Whether it be spiders, scorpions, lizards, or whatever other creepy crawly you might fear, you'll find them here.

3. Wifi becomes a luxury!! So yesterday (Sunday) we went into the town to go to a mall and chill around for a bit. After getting some groceries we all rushed to a coffee shop to get some wifi! Being out of the loop of a week feels weird! New news, hundreds of e-mails (lots of spam!), disappointing football results (how did Chelsea lose again?!?!?!) and ofcourse keeping up with friends! The 2 hours we spent at the coffee shop felt like 10 minutes!

4. Wherever you are on the farm you will hear animals! It almost feels weird not hearing them! Hearing the lambs/roosters in the morning, the baboons in the afternoon, or the Lions at night has become the norm.

5. Clean clothes? I wish!! I get through about 7 shorts and 12 shirts, and 9 pairs of socks per week. The work here gets you real dirty, wether it be leftover food from food prep, dirt and thorns from the desert, or baboon pee/poo (which is almost always the case) you will definitely need a change of clothes at lunch!

6. Going to bed at 9:30 is considered late. After a long days work almost everyone goes to bed at around 8 or 9pm!

That's it for today, Adios!

The Weekend

In the real world you have the weekends off, unfortunately life still goes on here at the farm, although on a less demanding scale. On Saturday morning we all had our activities we had to do, wether it be food prep, cheetah runs, baboon walks, etc. I was on Baboon walk for the morning which I quite enjoyed. I mentioned before how it was working with baboons and well, same things happen, as we walked to the water holes I had 4 of the tiny babies on me (heavy!!) and again felt like their toilet. Other than the usual urine and poo that I tend to get on my head and shoulders, I also got to experience having a baboon throw up on me...whilst on my head. Before they do you can hear them starting to gag and at the point you're just waiting to feel the slime on you...yeah not the most pleasant feeling, luckily the culprit, Frodo, helped me out by eating it up again!

Asias!

After the morning activities we had our lunch and went to our fun activity of the week, which was a football match against the San Bushmen FC! Ofcourse this got me excited as I hadn't touched a ball for over 3 weeks, and a game against the Bushmen?! How unique is that! As you can see from the photo, we played on a world class pitch (ignore the campfire marks, the wildlife poo, the nonexistent lines). The African heat was an absolute killer though! After about 10 minutes everyone was completely exhausted (except the Bushmen!).

Footy in Africa

Towards 6:00pm we headed back to the Lapa where we would have a Braai (a sort of bbq on the camp fire). Steaks, Sausages, Burgers, it was goooood!! Saturday night is also seen as the social night ( although every night is social) as the pool table was uncovered, the drinks were cold, and the karaoke was set! Every Saturday night there is karaoke which is a big laugh! In the beginning everyone is shy, but give it a couple of drinks, and it wasn't long before there was a queue!

Sunday I went to Windhoek where we would have 3 hours to walk around in the mall. The mall is the only one in the capital and was opened last year by the president (shows how rare it is!). I got a the essential groceries and went to a coffee shop where I was able to upload my blog and catch up with a weeks worth of happenings! At 1 we headed to Joe's for lunch, an absolute gem of a restaurant! I was eager to try some of the local cuisine and taste some game, so I got a meal that included, Oryx, Kudu, Crocodile, Zebra, and Springbok. Zebra was definitely the winner!

My Bushman Sosatie

The group that went to town

After lunch we headed back to the farm where we would take a drive into the reserve to see the sunset, which was a beautiful ending to the weekend.

Horseback Game Counts

One of the activities we do here at Na/an Kuse is horseback game counts. So the Na/an Kuse reserve covers over 3,200 hectares with a lot of wildlife of course. We actively track and conduct research on what we have roaming around and one way to do this is by doing game counts. In the past they used to drive around with pick ups an observe what they saw, but more recently they found that by going with horse you could get a lot closer as the animals weren't scared of the horses. 

Jules

Whilst Looking for Game 

So anyway, my group was assigned to horseback game count this morning with Tessa who is in charge of the horses here. Almost all of the horses are rescue horses and are being "broken in" here at the farm. So as we walked to the stables we had a look around at the horses, there were cute ponies, some medium sized horses and a HUGE Stallion! When meeting Tessa she asked us about riding experience (i've ridden at the beach in hua hin once or twice) and whether we were confident with horses. Surprise, Surprise, I told he that I was fine and that she could give me any horse. And yes... That bigggg stallion that we saw earlier...well... that was gonna be my horse for the next 3 months (Karma!!). While everyone else was getting their calm little ponies ready and combing them, Jules (my horse) was causing trouble, resisting, and generally not pleasant! But after half an hour of trying to please him, we got on our way to start counting the game (wildlife).

A Herd of Springbok

And the Kudo's

WHAT.AN.EXPERIENCE!! Going out with the horses in the middle of nowhere, complete silence, and seeing Springbok, Oryx, Kudo, Water Buck, Ostrich, Wild Baboons, a herd of Zebra, and much more, was breath taking. Seeing them in the wild and getting as close as 10 meters away from them is an amazing sight!

The research part included identify the sex, the age, and the number of animals we spotted (if we spotted 12 Springbok, we would count how many males/females and how many youngsters there were). After a two hour ride around the reserve we spotted over 60+ animals! There was however one on my list that we didn't see: the Giraffe! So there are 11 giraffes roaming around here and I definitely hope to spot them soon!!

Ostrich looking for trouble

The horseback game count is definitely one of my favorite activities here, anyway enjoy the photo's!!