There's more than Cheeta's ...

Blijf op de hoogte en volg Marcel

04 Oktober 2014 | Zuid-Afrika, Johannesburg

Besides the cheeta's (Duke and Rafael are the two youngsters, Chaka is a not-to-be-trusted-by-us biggie, Jade has a condition to her forelegs that makes her walk almost on her elbowes. Nala is a very nice cheeta that lets anyone just touch her and starts spinning almost immediately. And finally there's Jasmin, Tessa and Shakira) there are also 3 servals (Tigger, Jingles and Bells), 1 caracal (Pablo), 2 zebra's and 2 ostriches (unnamed as of yet), 1 small bird and a groundsquirl (different names, don't know them yet). And then 2 domestic cats (Fury and Thunder) who are everything but as fierces as their names suggest. Although Fury gave me a fright when last night, when I went to the bathroom, the curtain in the bathroom started moving and then she jumped in!

But there's even more then that! Besides looking after the animals we are also in a constant state of building up stone walls, maintaining the enclosures etc etc. All in all, when you go to bed at 10, you sleep very well :)

Tomorrow is our day off: every Sunday we can do different things. I know of three people of my group who go skydiving tomorrow morning. But there's an Elephant sanctuary to visit and a tour to a monkey reserve (with a canopy walk). And there's also a white lion park, with other big cats... There's enough to see and do, we just have to agree on what to do because we cannot go on our own. Hardus (he's the practical man around who can even handle Chaka) has to drive us there and all these things are quite some kilometers away.

Today, apart from collecting a lot of rocks to build the stone walls, I've sat with the youngsters, sat with Nala, spend some time with Pablo (not in his cage, he's to fierce and unpredictable. But he likes it when you sit besides the cage and just talk to him) and played with the bird and squirl. Believe it or not but the bird likes to be tickled at its head. She just climbed up all the way to my head and started to pull out hairs for her nest, I guess. Btw, the bird is not fullgrown so she has yet to learn how to fly.

05 Oktober 2014 - 10:40

Silke:

It seems as if you are turning into a bird lover ... :-). Wonderful experience you are making at the moment, do the cheetahs get released when they are grown-up or is it impossible for them to get back to a life in the bush without human support ?
Enjoy your stay out there ... and of course enjoy the trip on sunday wherever you are going it will be great fun with the animals

05 Oktober 2014 - 10:48

Marcel Brekelmans:

Good question and I'm happy I can explain it. This project has 3 phases. Currently we are in phase 1: get the cheetas we want to breed with, from all over the world (but not from the wild!), have them get used to people so we can observe and treat them, if necessary. Make sure they are in good condition with a good sperm count (which is a common deficiency amongst cheeta's). Phase 2: release male and female in a closed environment, with natural prey. Hopefully they will instinctively go hunting on their own. Even more hopefully, after a while, they will start having offspring. All during phase 2, there will be no human contact. And hopefully there will be an offspring: phase 3 means that the offspring, not touched by humans and thus completely wild, will be released in the wild.

This is a unique project. While it is being done with lions (succesfully), this is a first for cheeta's!