WILDLIFE CENTRE:

21-23 MARCH AND 2 APRIL

WORKING WITH ANIMALS...

The Wildlife Centre is our rehabilitation centre. This is where all injured or abandoned animals are sent to and taken care of. Our tasks working at the Wildlife Centre is just basically feeding the animals, giving them their milk bottles, cut up meat for the animals that eat meat, cleaning out their cadges and putting in new lucern. After these tasks are done we wash out all the bottles, rake up all the leaves and left over lucern we also clean out the small watering hole that the animals drink out of. After all of this work is done we find something else that needs to be done like fixing the fences inside so that the animals can’t escape... Taking care of these animals and having a clean environment for them to live is a very important matter.

It’s a good experience working with these animals. You learn to look at them in a different manner. Taking care of animals is a great responsibility and if you don’t put in everything then you should rather not do it. The smelliest job to do at the Wildlife Centre is picking up the rhino dung and also cleaning the cheetah cages. Working here teaches you to be gentle towards animals and it also teaches you how to take care of them, what you should do with them and how to approach them. Working close to these animals is a fantastic experience, having the opportunity to work with an animal that is actually found in the wild and experiencing the different behaviour that they have...

All the animals in the Wildlife Centre gets treated differently. The antelope gets bottle fed. while feeding them, you need to hold onto the teet. This is necessary to do, else the might swallow the teets. The rhino's is a different story. We feed them brown rice and a special powder milk. After this is prepared, we take their big bowls over to the big boma where they spend their day. We place the bowls about in the middle of the boma and the Brian or Lian (staff that works there) brings them to the boma by running infront of them. When they entre the boma you need to be very careful and keep a good lookout, they might charge you. Working with the rhino's you always need to be on alert. WHY?? because their moods can change in a second...

The lions, we don't feed the lions. We are also not allowed in their cages while they are inside. Simply the lions are hand raised by certain people and they are use to work with these people. So it's important for them to be treated by people that they know, it all goes on trust. If they don't know you, they might just charge you and you can get hurt badly. A lion isn't a animal you want to paly with, they will kill yuou and hurt you badly with their big claws. So for our protection we don't work with them and visitors aren;t allowed to touch them. But they still stay amazing...

The cheetahs are very agressive animals. We are also not allowed in their cage, they aren't so tame yet. They will give warning sounds to you when you pass, this is simply because they don't know you and they are still young and untame. Doing their feeding normally is Charmaine or Lorraine. When they enter the cage with their food, they will run around until they sit down. When she is seated they will approach her carefully and calmly. She has to wait until they finish their food. The cervals and the caracals are very tame as in they were handraised since birth, so they are use to human contact. Their food just gets placed inside the cage and they do the rest.

The animals that live outside and that are walking around freely, you don't need to worry about them. they won't hurt you unless you threaten them. You just need to be careful for the zebra's, they might kick you. The Zebra's and the Girraffe also gets bottle fed, the same as the antelope. The outside animals's food gets placed under the tree next to the boma and watering hole. The small ostrich, the warthogs, the duck and chickens get fed some Bok kos.

If seeing tame wildlife is something that attracts you, coming to the Wildlife Centre is the best way to experience this... You won’t be disappointed!!! It’s a must see...