Lulu and Lala

During my time at Naankuse, I also got to be involved in a baby baboon rescue mission. One of the sub-adult baboons gave birth shortly after I arrived at the sanctuary. This was an unplanned pregnancy from the sanctuary's point of view and was the result of a wild baboon visiting the baboon enclosure. The staff knew that there could be some problems for the new mum, Lala, and her baby, Lulu, because Lala was very low in the social structure of the group so they kept a close eye on the situation. A few days later, one of the dominant females who had been showing signs of jealousy stole the baby and wouldn't give it back. The staff waited for a few hours, but eventually had to make the decision to intervene before the baby got dehydrated and malnourished. The plan was to tranquilise the kidnapper, but the baboons recognise both the tranq gun and Rudie, the only person with a tranq gun license, and get aggravated. In order to try and keep the baboons calm and make it easy to get a good shot they decided to take a new approach and get us all involved. Our job was to cluster around Rudie and walk him to the baboon enclosure so that the baboons wouldn't spot him in the crowd. It worked perfectly and they successfully managed to reunite mother and baby and move them into an enclosure with a younger group of baboons where Lala would be more dominant and not face the same problems again.

Lala and Lulu recovering from their ordeal before being moved into another enclosure

Einstein

During my time at Naankuse, a wild cheetah named Einstein was brought into the sanctuary and we got to watch and assist as he was tranquilised, vasectomised, and had his gps collar removed. Einstein's territory encompassed several properties in southern Namibia, including Neuras. Several farmers in the area were suffering stock losses by cheetah predation and the team at Neuras thought Einstein might be responsible. They managed to trap and fit Einstein with a GPS collar while he was visiting the Neuras property and the GPS points proved that Einstein was ignoring the native game and choosing to predate on stock instead. When he decided to kill and eat a very expensive prize ram he effectively put a target on his head. The farmers of the area were planning to shoot all cheetahs on site to protect their stock unless the Neuras team could prove that they had removed the problem cheetah from the area. Thankfully Einstein returned to Neuras and went into one of the traps. He was then transported the 5hr drive up to Naankuse to be processed and put into an enclosure. The team are planning to build a large free-range enclosure for him at Neuras so he can return to his home, but unfortunately he will have to live out his days in captivity. I'm sure all that lamb and beef was tasty, but it probably wasn't worth it. Personally, I find kudu to be just as tasty as beef.

Its sad that Einstein will no longer be a wild cheetah, but by removing a proven stock killer from the area, Naankuse and Neuras are building relationships and respect with the local farmers and are protecting all the other cats in the area from persecution. It was a privilege to be involved in the work they are doing.

Neuras

While I was in Namibia working with Naankuse wildlife sanctuary, I had the opportunity to travel south to one of their other properties and do a bit of work tracking wild leopards. Neuras is a working vineyard and tourist operation as well as base for big cat research and is a beautiful place to stay.

 
During my week at Neuras, we had a day trip into the desert to Sossusvlei to climb the sand dune known as "Big Daddy" and see a bit of the Namib desert.

When it wasn't pouring with rain at Neuras, we spent our time tracking wild leopards that the team there had fitted with radio collars to gather data on the way they were using the habitat and what they were eating. We found two kill sites of one of the leopards, both of which were springbok carcasses. We tracked one of the leopards to within 15m, but even at that close range we didn't manage to get a glimpse of her. It was probably my best day of the whole trip.

  Leopard kill site in small cave

 

 Wild leopard paw print

The team at Neuras also feed and service a large free-range cheetah enclosure at Solitaire. We spent one day there feeding the cheetahs and refilling the water sources. Great cheetah photo opportunities.

Naankuse Wildlife Sanctuary, Namibia

 I spent 3 weeks living and working at Naankuse Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia. I had a great time there and got to play with quite a variety of African animals. Here are just a few photos to make you jealous.

Baboons - there are quite a number of baboons at the sanctuary that come in as orphans and are handraised by the staff and volunteers. Unfortunatley, they are unable to be released as adults because baboons are considered a pest species in Namibia so they are lifetime residents at the sanctuary. Volunteers babysit the youngest baboons overnight and take them one walks during the day as enrichment for them.

 

 Meerkats

 

 Lions

Caracals

Warthogs

Painted Dogs

Puff Adders (which we were putting radio trackers on and relocating away from camp)

Zebra

Striped Pole Cat

Duiker

 Ostrich

 Aardvark

 Leopard

Cheetah

 Moongoose

leaving Namibia

I have just left Namibia and am in South Africa awaiting my flight to Tanzania.  My month volunteering at Naankuse was amazing. I have had so many memorable experiences and have met some fantastic new people that have become my friends. I'll have to do a big write up some other time,  but this will have to do for now.

Namibia Photos

I'm having a lot of trouble getting my photos to upload in the dodgy African wifi, but I am trying.

I have been having a great time and I've got some really good photos to show you when they finally work.

Africa!!!!

I meant to post in the last couple of days, updating my progress in packing and getting organized for my trip and also posting some photos from the couple of days I just spent in Victoria as the last leg of my "farewell tour". Especially as I have some nice photos of our trip to Melbourne Zoo.

Well, I didn't get around to posting the photos. I'm now sitting in the Singapore airport, waiting for my flight to Johannesburg to board. My flights so far have been really good and I've navigated my way around the Singapore airport so everything is going well so far.

It remains to be seen if I'll be able to keep you all updated from Namibia, but I'll try. I'm not even very nervous anymore. The nervousness left once I got into the international part of Melbourne airport because it is so far out of my frame of reference and I barely believe I'm actually on my way to Africa.

Catch you when I'm on the other side of the World.