CHEETAHS! and then some

By far the most numerous of the cats at Moholoholo is the cheetah.  It seems not only are there are a lot of them around, but also they get into trouble a lot.  So a lot of kittens have arrived at the Rehab

Center over the years, though, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, none so far this year.

Here's an old lady who has lived at the Center for about 8 years.  She was raised by bottle and now enjoys a compound, all to herself, that must be at least a couple of acres in size.  She is far too tame to be released, but she is what is called here an "ambassador" animal, in that she will amicably pose for photos with people and hopefully help to educate them about cheetahs.  She seemed to enjoy that a group of us came to visit her one afternoon, and we sat with her on a little hill and felt most companionable.

And, in fact, here she is, amicably posing with some tourist.






And here I am, together with another volunteer who came from Madagascar, with the yearling cheetah cubs.  They were mostly very nice, but when the two smaller volunteers from Madagascar (aged 10 and 12 years old) were near, they suddenly took on the "predator" look rather than the "kitty cat" look.  I heard that big cats are notorious for having a predatory attitude toward children; that's very eerie.

 
And this is my favorite cheetah, Bullet, who lived very near my little house.  One evening--after all that elephant meat came in--I saw Bullet's supper, and it had to be at LEAST 10 pounds of meat.
This is Bullet the next morning contemplating and discussing the meal of the night before with me.

Please turn your volume up high so you can hear what he has to say!

And here, for no good reason, except they're really pretty birds, and there's room for them here, are:

A rare Bateleur eagle named Chicken who also has lived at Moholoholo for years and who loves to have his neck scratched. And he's got the prettiest pinky-orange beak and feet imagineable.

 

And this guy--a ground hornbill, also rare--spends his day making an odd hollow gulping noise in an apparently futile attempt to attract female company.

                                                                    

Dassies

      The very first day I was at the Rehab Center, I went and sat in the area called the "student commons".  This is a large room with a complete kitchen in it, lots of tables, easy chairs, and a computer area, surrounded by verandahs all around.  A very comfortable place.  I sat there trying to make contact with home, when I heard a bit of rustling around, and here's who I saw sharing the comfortable coolness of the student commons.

Looked like an ordinary woodchuck to me, and also looked very content.  He (or she) did not go out of its way to be friendly to me, and when I approached it too closely, it made its way outdoors, but it seemed quite comfortable in my presence.
I really did not pay much attention.



Later I noticed that there was a colony of these guys living near my little house, and that they were an active communal-living family and pretty cute to watch.

I asked around and learned that these were "dassies."  At least, that's what Africans call them, though their correct name is "rock hyrax."  OK, I thought, "cute."
     I don't think I've mentioned one of the students who was working at the Center, the only other American, a fellow Cubs fan from Chicago named Alex.  Here's a photo of Alex that SHE accidentally took with my camera one day:

 Alex is brash and melodramatic and SO nineteen years old, and a lot of fun and warm and generous.  I learned that one of "her babies" was a baby dassie named Houdini, and she agreed to introduce him to me and even let me give him his bottle.  I bonded with Houdini so much, she generously let me feed him a couple of times a day.  After he had his bottle he would nestle under my chin and squeak, and I was deeply in love.

In fact, my last morning at Moholoholo, I gave Houdini the last bottle I would give him, and I started crying.  And you know what he did?  
He licked the tears off my face!!!!!
Seriously!!

Here's the drawing I did of Houdini.
              




      Here's the interesting thing:   when I got home,  I looked up the rock hyrax on The Box of Truth (otherwise known as the internet) and found that they are the closest living relative of . . . . you're not going to believe this . . . . . the ELEPHANT!!!!!

More of the less conspicuous

      There are several huge fenced-in enclosure at the edge of the Moholoholo Rehab Center compound.  I think each of them approaches a full acre in size.  The large animals that live there obviously have considerable space to themselves.
       Last post I showed you the calm, thoughtful male lion.  He shares his compound with another male and three females.  While it is impossible to look at the sleepy males without forming the impression that they are completely benign, the same cannot be said for the females.  THEIR eyes follow one as one passes by, and they don't appear to be having warm cuddly thoughts about how nice it would be if you would pet them.  They appear to be interested in one as LUNCH.  

My imagination, do you think?  I think she has that "lean, hungry look."











Walking a little further down the row of compounds, I found the cat I found I liked the best of all the adult cats.  This is Delilah, a stunning (in my opinion) leopard.  Delilah also was hand-raised, and she too purrs up a storm when some one comes by her enclosure and rubs against the fence and walks along with one.  She gives the appearance of loneliness--that she wishes people would come her way more often and keep her company.  I sat with her and drew her a couple of times--she's GREAT to draw!!

Look at the way she MOVES!!!

I was enthralled.  Here's my best effort at drawing Delilah.  So far, anyway.

 

        Here's a couple of babies I don't believe I've introduced yet.  These are SABLES!  When I think of sables, I think of Russian mink-like creatures with really valuable pelts.  These are not those sables.  These are the rarest kind of antelope in South Africa.  They were abandoned by their mothers on private game reserves, and they were brought to be raised by experts.    I frequently was told that they were each "worth a million Rand."  One Rand = 8 plus dollars, but that's still a lot of money.  It was hard to think of them in purely financial terms, though--they reminded of little Jersey calves, and my, how they loved their bottles.

 
       This is Charlie, from Liverpool, the student volunteer who was given the EXTREMELY important task of mothering these two little sables.  They are very delicate and particularly susceptible to dysentery.  They were on a very strict regimen and Charlie had to get up twice every night, make his way to the clinic, and prepare their bottles and feed them.
        For some time, Charlie and I were the only non-South Africans at the Center.   Even so, we barely understood each other.  I thought I'd be able to understand a Liverpool accent given my lifelong experience with the Beatles, but, no.
Charlie said that the Liverpool accent has the reputation of being one of the most unintelligible in the world.
        Or, at least that's what I think he said.
 

Less visible Moholoholo inhabitants

        After hearing the lions roar in the middle of the night, it occurred to me that I had not actually SEEN any adult lions at the Center.  Therefore--oh, the logician in me did come along to Africa-- there must be some animals I had not even been introduced to.  So--one rainy afternoon--I went exploring through the maze of compounds.  Here's what I found.

        A pack of wild dogs.  Some of you may have guessed that I love dogs.  Well, these were among the least lovable dogs I've ever seen.  They appear to be so greedy and so vicious.  I was particularly shocked to see that the guys feed them in pairs.  One guy carries the meat and the other carries a BIG club.  Can't tell you how surprising that it is to see in this place.  But one also is forced to remember that it was only recently that a child who fell into a wild dog enclosure in a Pennsylvania zoo was mauled to death.  These guys aren't messing around.

       And, now that I think of it, I don't know why they're here.  They must have been hand-raised and therefore (again with the "therefore") too habituated to humans.  They sure don't give any indication of being habituated to humans.

Lions!  Great big ones!  Not even a little bit cute!  But very regal, dignified, and apparently one-time bottle babies.

Here's my "action shot" of a lion.  Follow closely to catch the 'action'.










And below is a photo I took that I particularly liked, so much, I made a drawing from it.  You can see that my drawing skills have not improved to a stage where I can do anything more than copy.  More under-appreciated animals to follow!

An afternoon excursion with Jan

          It was never very clear who among all the people I met was who. No titles, no explanations of responsibility or authority. The guy who picked me up at the airport in Huidspruit simply told me his name was Jan (pronounced Yon), and it soon became clear to me that he had expertise and authority, whatever his position was.
         Here's Jan, in a photo he accidentally (I think) took of himself with my iPad camera.
         I think he was in charge of us "students"' which has to be a lot like herding cats. One day he abruptly asked us if we wanted to go for a ride in the bush. Of course, we were all up for that. So we loaded into the "bokke" I think it's called (pronounced "bucky") and drove out into the very extensive area that is Moholoholo.
         Our first stop was at this small pond formed by a dammed-up stream. Lots of very tall grasses around it, quite lush. Jan threw out some of the pellets I'd been feeding rabbits all week, and who should submerge but two hefty hippos. Jan said they were father and daughter and that the mother had suddenly died a couple of years earlier. Here they are,munching on the snack we brought them. And the SOUND of their eating was stupefying. Check it out! We were about 5 feet from them (in the bokke, of course) when I took this photo.

 

 

 

         Jan, in an uncharacteristically philosophical mood, said that if he were ever to be reincarnated, he'd like to be reincarnated as a hippo.    He said their life consists of just laying around in the water doing absolutely nothing all day, and then meandering out to graze at night.  They are absolute vegetarians and are quite capable of dealing with most predators.  Jan questions their reputation at the animal that kills more people than any other in Africa.  He suspects that lions, elephants, and crocodiles all exceed them.  But there's no doubt this benign-looking animal IS dangerous when it feels threatened and it has incredibly strong teeth and jaws.  But they're only for self-defense.  The object being, therefore, to NOT give them the impression they need to defend themselves from you!
         Lovely, lovely animals, front to back!

        We then bounced around on some incredibly rough roads and saw lots of giraffes and all kinds of antelopes. And then, these guys. They were perfectly happy to come eat from our hands, but it was not safe for us to get out of the bokke. Like the hippos, they're an odd mix of wild and tame but in any case breathtaking to see close up.  Their patterns seem more unique than fingerprints.

Good news/bad news

       After the initial euphoria of getting my hands on some incredible animals wears off, I am forced to face the sadness of some of their situations.  Most of these animals were brought to Moholoholo because they were abandoned, orphaned, injured, poisoned, or sick.  In order for them to survive, they must be treated ever so attentively.
       Especially the baby animals must be coddled if they are to have any chance of living.  For animal lovers like me, that at first feels like a great opportunity.  
        BUT, the reality is that by coddling these babies, they will be irrevocably tamed, and that means they cannot ever be released back into the wild.  The baby lions for example will live out their days in captivity, because they would get into SO much trouble in the wild.  They obviously will have no fear of people, and in fact will expect people to be kind and nurturing toward them.  That would be a terrible mistake for them.
        It is a startling thing to realize that even Africa is becoming too small for wildlife, and that while  we humans can take some credit for some of these animals' survival, we also have to accept the blame for the fact that they will never be able to be wild animals again.
        But for the animals that come in as sick or wounded adults, the story is more promising.  Sometimes they can be healed in a relatively short time, and then they can be released.  I was lucky enough to see two releases.
        The first was a brown snake eagle, who was poisoned.  Why would anyone poison an eagle?  Well, jackals are a terrible problem for cattle ranchers.  They eat cattle.  There are lots of jackals, and a rancher can't shoot enough of them.  So he poisons a carcass, and they're ALL gone overnight. YAY!!!!       But everything else that eats the carcass, and everything else that eats the carcasses of the poisoned jackals is also dead, or at least well on its way there.  
      So goes the brown snake eagle.  But this guy, after a couple of weeks of careful care at Moholoholo, got well and as a result, got free--hopefully NOT to be poisoned again.  Moholoholo tries to educate ranchers about these dangers, but you can imagine how hard it is to convince some one who is making a bare subsistence living that he shouldn't poison the predators that are killing his most valuable possessions! 
          And then there was this leopard who was apparently struck by a vehicle.  He too was revived by the care at the Rehab Center, and, even more importantly, a reserve that does NOT hunt leopards, agreed that he could be released there.  It's HARD to find such locations!  And so here he is, being released.  Let's hope that freedom serves him well!

Note regarding posts and pics

The internet connection between Moholoholo and the rest of the world is, as you might guess, spotty.  Sometimes images don't arrive to home base until three days later.  And some blog posts still are unavailable.  Ann is due to leave Moholoholo in a couple of days for another site which will hopefully have better access, but we're not counting on it.

As a result we may not be caught up until after her return.

Thanks for following along!

Continuing on my rounds

Goshawk

    



        After I'm done with my vultures and Jumper, the rare black 1 and 1/2 winged eagle, I go to clean up the water dish and cage of a beautiful goshawk.  It looks just like the goshawks back home.  I'm not sure whether it's exactly the same species or not, but it's certainly very similar. 

Zak

And from there I go to clean up after Zak, who is a serval (a small cat, notable for being temperamental and untrustworthy).  Zak is a very picky eater.  Sometimes he gets sick of eating chicks and will hold out for a pigeon or a guinea pig for DAYS.  As a result, he is no fat cat.
      














        And several times a day, I need to feed my baby squirrel, shown here with fellow volunteer Guilliame from Madagascar.  Guilliame and his mom and brother and his mom's friend stayed about five days.  Unfortunately for me, they were all French-speaking and so our communication was severely limited.  But Guilliame and I became fast friends, united by an unconditional love for all animals.
        One day the squirrel abruptly decided he no longer drank milk from a syringe, but now prefers to dine on nuts, seeds and fruits, and MAYBE a little milk now and then, but from a DISH, not a syringe.
     

        Also, there are the baby yellow canaries.  They took a dive when some of the workmen cutting brush accidentally destroyed their nest.  They are not rare or valuable, but I'm happy to say that NO animal goes ignored around here, and they've been well-cared-for ever since ( mainly by ME).  That means feeding by syringe at least once every two hours.  Most days I fed them at least 10 times.  But now they too are feeling grown up.  They're flying a bit and becoming much more independent.
      It's very strange to think that in so short a time here, "my" babies have taken such large strides toward growing up!

My Daily Routine

        Under normal conditions here, the chores are divided up amongst four groups. There are now four of us volunteers, so we are each a "group." Since the chores are devised for groups of 3-6 people, you can see that we four are working very hard.  I for one am EXHAUSTED by noon, though of course I am hardly the typical volunteer, since I am more than 3 times the age of the others.


        Here are my daily chores, and the critters I'm responsible for. Chores start at 7 am, and it is expected that before then you will have fed your babies. So I'm usually at the "clinic" which is the center of the facility here, around 6:45 to feed my squirrel and my baby birds. I think they will be flying vigorously by the time I leave (in five more days). It is amazing how fast they grew. And my squirrel abruptly decided yesterday that he is no longer a baby. He will no longer take a bottle but insists on big boy food like sunflower seeds, peanuts, apple, and carrot.

  

         After I'm done with them, I make my way to the crow Winnie (after Mrs. Mandela). Winnie is quite friendly and is happy to see me with my bowl of dead baby chicks in the morning. 
        This place buys frozen baby chicks by the garbage bagful. They come from a chicken farm where they had the misfortune to be born male. We go through 100's of them per day. Winnie goes through 8-10 herself.
        I clean her cage THOROUGHLY!!!   Standards are amazingly strict here. We
sterilize everything with bleach on Mondays and scrub everything down twice daily every day.



        From Winnie, I made my way to Jumper's cage. Jumper is a black eagle--very very rare. Tragically (and commonly, which is even more tragic), Jumper flew into a power line and broke his wing so badly half of it had to be amputated. He's been here for more than 10 years and obviously never can be released, but he sings to me every morning very beautifully, and in return, I give him 5-7 baby chicks. 
 

 
Here's a drawing of Jumper I did for Natasha, who was leaving the Rehab Center after having been employed there for some time.  I offered to do a drawing of any of Moholoholo's inhabitants for her, and she chose Jumper, her favorite.  I decided to draw him as if he did not have the broken wing.
 
 Other birds share Jumper's large enclosure.  They include:

One of two fish eagles, this one half-blind from an old injury

And these tiny pygmy owls--can't be more than 5 inches tall.

 




After Jumper's enclosure is spotless and everybody's fed,  I move on to my two white-faced vultures. I don't feed them. They are fed perhaps only once or twice a week with fresh red meat. Just a couple of days ago, I saw them feasting on fresh elephant meat. There's been a lot of dining on fresh elephant meat lately (so far, not by me, as far as I know).

I found I quite liked my vultures.  They were surprisingly playful and personable.  One of them liked to steal my tools when my back was turned, and they were, well . . . . just rather pleasant!

I will finish my rounds with you next post!