Working With Wildlife: Week 5 Highlights

On Monday the 5th life on the farm continued as usual except for some slight changes. Every week volunteers come and go, which means that the people in your group change as well. This week I had 3 new volunteers join me in my group, so 4 of us in total. The new people in my group were definitely here for vacation… they often just left to go relax at the Lapa, they didn’t help with enclosure cleaning, and basically saw me as their tour guide. This of course resulted in a very busy week for myself.

Little Emma

Horseback Adventures

That same Monday I also decided to do something new. Every week Mette organizes and afternoon horse ride for the experienced riders to do some trotting and galloping. Me being quite cocky, I thought that horse riding was a piece of cake and that I could easily join, and thus I signed up to join the afternoon ride. It had been a longgg time since I last trotted on a horse (on the beach in hua hin) so I braced myself for a good ride. I did ask around before for any tips which turned out to be quite useful. The ride began with a nice long walk to get the horse warm before the real deal. After about 15 minutes Mette gave her horse the signal and off we went. Riding on Jules, I started off at the back asI thought that was the safest option. The moment we began trotting my foot came off the stirrups ( I thought in my head…this is it, I’m falling off right away) and then the galloping began, for about 300 meters I was holding on for my dear life as Jules start surpassing one horse after the other to go right in the front of the pack. Luckily I had gotten my foot back into the stirrups so I had a bit more control. Whilst galloping, I was advised to just stay up on my feet and not sit on the saddle, this proved to be the key to me staying on the horse. Once we stopped, my heart was beating like the cylinders of a v8 engine. This feeling came back when we went on our second gallop, which felt like the most exciting and adventurous thing I had done all week, for about 800 meters the horses galloped at speeds that Mette considered “uncontrollable”. She had never gone that fast, which I took as a good achievement given that I managed to stay on Jules with considerable control! At the end of the ride, Mette applauded my ability and I was invited to join again next week! #WINNING!!

Giraffes!!!

Another big highlight of this week was that I finally got to see the Giraffe during a horse back game count! The sight was absolutely stunning! Seeing 10 Giraffes (including 2 juveniles) right in the wild about 50 meters in front of us was breath taking. I’m glad I could finally check that off my bucket list! That game count was also made a bit more interesting as I rode another horse, Sir Alfred, who was a complete pain in the ass! By now Mette, who is in charge of the horses, views me as an experienced rider, so gave me Alfred as Jules was given to a “larger” volunteer. Alfred had a complete panic attack midway through the ride, left, right, left, right, anything but the direction I wanted him to go. After 15 minutes I finally calmed him down, but my god, I was shocked myself with my ability to control him!

Giraffe!!!!

Last week we had baby Emma come to the farm after her mother was shot, and this week we welcomed two more monkeys; a baby baboon and a baby vervet monkey. The baby baboon (about 3 months old) came in after his mother was shot that same day. When he arrived he was completely covered in his mothers blood and was absolutely traumatized. Like Emma he was to receive 24/7 human care to calm him down and help him out, which turned out to help quite well as towards the end of the week he was starting to play again. The baby vervet monkey was added to the baby vervet enclosure where she would have Gollum and Precious (2 baby vervets) to keep her company. As sad as their stories are, seeing the little babies around during food prep and at the Lapa always gives you a smile on your face!

Sad faces!

Weekend Activity

The weekend activity this week was darting some ostriches that were causing problems at the lodge (biting guests and destroying windows). We wouldn’t be the ones shooting the darts of course, but we would watch Rudie(the founder) attempt to get them! After being given a brief introduction on how the process worked and how we would proceed to dart them we headed out towards the lodge. I was quick and joined Rudie and Marlice in the Range Rover Mamba (think of a heavy duty jeep, 30 years old, no windshield/roof/doors, and totally indestructible). After spotting the first male ostrich, everyone got out (the rest were in pick ups following us), and we watched Rudie try and dart the ostrich. Darting an ostrich is very difficult as you need to get the dart underneath their wings. The difficulty plus the fact that the ostrich was very scared of Rudie made the process impossible by foot. So we reverted to plan B, we would chase the ostrich through the bush and try and shoot him from the car. The others would stay in their pick ups and drive towards a higher view point to see the action. I however was right in the action! In it was for moments like these that I wish I could upload videos! Chasing the ostrich at speeds well above 50 km/h, going from left to right, and completely running over huge bushes was another great adrenaline rush. I was so lucky that I joined their car as the rest just watched from a distance. Unfortunately after a 20 minute chase, the ostrich went into an area that was inaccessible by car so we had to end our pursuit. Instead we headed to another ostrich who was known to be very tame. This time around darting the other ostrich was a lot easier, she didn’t move away, and could be darted without any complications. She was then taken onto the pick up and driven to the other side of the sanctuary, where she could live happily every after (blah blah blah!)