Chapter 2 My first workdays

On my first two workdays I did quite a few things that would make many a born vegetarian squeamish. I won’t say all experiences were fun, but they were definitely educational. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning.

Each morning breakfast was until 9.00 at which moment the work starts. Every morning we start with the so-called basics. Our team-leader Marni showed us the ropes together with the more experienced volunteers. We clean all the enclosures of the small animals, put in clean water and food in some of them. The meerkats get 5 crickets, a meal worm and a raw egg each. The serval cubs get milk, rafiki (a monkey) gets fruit, vegetables and nuts and Dassie (a rock hyrax) and Spike get raw vegetables. Harry (a baby golden aurochs) gets milk as well and the multiple chickens on the compound get clean water, like the rest of the birds they have in cages.

The big enclosures are cleaned sporadically (whenever we can lure the big cats in their feeding cages or when the more experienced worker Miekie is present). In the afternoon the interesting, albeit for me somewhat compromising task starts. We have to skin dead chickens, cut their meat and chunks of cow meat in pieces to feed the animals in the second feeding session. In my next session I’ll describe the procedure, but for now I’ll skip ahead to the actual feeding itself. During the afternoon feeding session the big cats give a pacing and roaring show. Especially Kilahari and Okuvango the normal male lions make a show of it. The roaring sounds ferocious compared to the growling of the apparently much more civilized larger white male lion William Walace. The females Princess (white lioness who had her nose and ears damaged by tiger cubs when she was a cub) and Elsa skip the drama too unless the meat is frozen (Princess) in which case she protests fiercely, or when you stay too close during feeding (Elsa) in which case she roars too get privacy. Sultan and Casper (the teenaged white lions) have no such qualms. They just grab their meat, run to a private spot and start eating.
Another story seems to illustrate bad luck of some cubs. When younger William Wallace was bitten by a snake and now he needs regular medication to keep epileptic seizures at bay. He still looks majestic though.

Compared to the big ones feeding the smaller cats seemed a rather tame experience as the servals (Leila and Zanille, Juli, Jubilee and Jubula and Sylvestre and Milan), meerkats (Fred, Bettie and Igugu), jackals (Jackie and Naledi) and gennets just grab and eat. The vegetarian animals get either vegetables or milk (depending on their age). Only the larger Caracals do a bit of hissing when they get fed. Some action finally occurred when it was the turn of Lebombo, the brats and Alzu. They always shake things up. You never know if they will take the piece intended for them, but in the end each gets a piece of meat to chew on. I guess I should mention one more detail. Interestingly enough all lions, cheetahs and jackals get red meat while all the other meat-lovers get chicken.
Well, that was it for this instalment. Until next time.