Africa Normal

Things are really different in this world, but it's never hard for me to make the transition once I get here. It's just a matter of thinking in the "Africa Normal" mode.

a peacock shows off on the lapa lawn

In the US we are obsessed with safety. Heaven forbid you should drive to the neighborhood convenience store without putting on your safety belt--or ride your bicycle in your driveway without a helmet on. At Harnas, though, you might find yourself standing on the sidebar of a truck, dodging thornbushes as you careen down a bumpy, winding dirt road, holding on for dear life.

Baby caracal Annabel at play

Speciesism is rare at Harnas. For example, yesterday at lunch I shared my waterbottle with Rica, a baby baboon, and later on a bushwalk, Atheno had a drink from it. Never did it occur to me to wipe the bottle opening before I drank. We're all friends here!



A kiss from Atheno

 Dinner conversation usually avoids things like world events and focuses instead on such issues as poaching or the lax laws in South Africa that lead to inbreeding in lions. And oh yes, we talk about the food. Last night Erin commented brilliantly that there was an "overexcitement of condiments" in the food.

BUT

Conversation comes to an immediate halt when the lions roar. Everyone stops, listens, and tries to determine if it is Zion or Macho who has started the symphony. Then we bask in the music. After 2-3 minutes, conversation continues where it left off.



Zion enjoying the morning sun

 Fashion is something very different than you'll find in Paris. Tank tops and shorts rule, and the value of clothes is determined by the experience they exemplify. My favorite shorts have a mended "L"-shaped scar that marks the spot where Martha tore a large hole while play-attacking me on a lion walk. They're a prized possession because of this.

And finally, at any given moment, you can stop, listen, and the odds are pretty good that you'll hear Marieta somewhere on the farm, yelling at a Bushman.

An update on Pride: Erin has stayed two nights in the Lifeline area to try to catch Pride when she comes to get the bait meat. No luck so far. I'm planning on joining her tonight. Hope for the best!

Updates on Old Friends

I thought I'd give updates on some animals that have been around awhile for the readers who have been following Harnas and/or me for some time.

Elsa, the first lion born on Harnas and the oldest living lion here, turned 26 on Christmas Day. Her back legs don't work so great, but she gets around amazingly well with the front. She's living near the main house in an enclosure where we can all keep an eye on her. She's groomed every day, her enclosure is kept spotless, and lots of people talk to her all day. She seems content. In this photo, she is upset with me because I'm sitting too close to her meat. She wasn't interested in eating it, but she sure didn't want me even to look at it. She kept up a steady stream of "talking" to me. After the pictures, I moved away and she settled down. Clearly, she's still a woman with opinions.

Audrey is our blind vervet monkey. She was kept in a dark room as a pet when she was young. When her owner suddenly exposed her to bright light, she went blind. Soon after that she came to Harnas. She is way over 20 years old--impossible to know for sure since we don't know how old she was when she came. Almost all her teeth are gone, but she lives in her little house and eats fresh fruit, nuts, and seeds. I take her a peanut each day, but she has trouble cracking it now, so I do it for her and she takes it from my hand. Then we talk awhile.

Next, Juliet is a caracal who was born two years ago about this time. She and her littermate, Romeo, were taken from their mother who had a history of abandoning her babies. They were bottle fed by Willi and Cornelia, some good German friends, but it was determined that they were blind. Romeo was killed by a snake last March, but Juliet is fine. The great news is that the vet did some treatment of Juliet's eyes, and if you look closely at the photo, you'll see that her eyes are clear and focused. She can see--very well, actually. I saw her swing at a low-flying bird. A success story.

Finally, about three years ago, Simba and Macho became parents of a litter of four lion cubs. The smallest--who seemed fragile and who needed special care--was removed from the family and hand raised. She was named Martha. Martha not only grew and thrived, but she quickly gained a reputation of being one of the fiestiest cats at Harnas. I, myself, have several scars from the girl. Now she's all grown up and living in an enclosure with a young male from an earlier litter, called Z. She's quite beautiful, but still shows her temper when her meat isn't delivered fast enough. Some things never change.

If there's an animal you'd like an update on, let me know!

a deluge

I thought I'd start with this picture to keep you entertained while I tell you today's story--which has nothing to do with the picture. This is Ronnie, usually bouncing around causing general mayhem, but on this day he fell asleep at the lapa bar and looked so angelic. His real personality shielded for a time.

The story today starts yesterday afternoon when Erin decided we should put out some meat in a cage (without a door) near the place we believed Pride was living. Then we should set up a motion detector camera to see if she came to eat the meat with her cubs. The odds weren't very good--jackals, caracals, warthogs could all come and take the meat, too. But it was better than just driving around, hoping to run into her.

So Erin and Anja sat in the front of the truck and Alice and Laurent (a couple from Paris) and I stood in the back of the truck, dodging the branches of camelthorn trees as we drove. About 30 minutes out, nearly to our destination, it began to rain. RAIN. I mean RAIN! We huddled in the back of the truck, but it got harder and harder until we were drowning.

Erin stopped the truck and we all tried to pile into the front of the cab. Five adults trying to fit in the cab of a small truck! It was like clowns at a circus getting into a small car. We pushed and shoved and finally got 4 1/2 of us in. Poor Laurent was only half in, the other half being pelted by the deluge. We began to see that this would not work, so we made a plan to drive about 10 minutes to the dam house for protection. Again, poor Laurent got in the back of the truck and the four women in the front. We wanted to take a picture but none of us could reach our pockets because we were so tightly packed in, and besides, we were not a pretty group.

Finally to the dam house where we fell out and went inside to dry off a bit. It rained for a long time, but we were snug in our house. Volunteers had left the place a mess, so we spent our time cleaning it up and making it presentable for the next group that slept out.

When the rain stopped, we got back into the truck. The temperature had dropped at least 30 degrees, and of course we were still wet, but we gritted our teeth and wrapped damp towels around us to try to stay warm. We set up the trap and the camera and went home to hot showers.

BUT it was all worth it because today Erin went back to the camera and found the meat gone and pictures taken. When she looked at them she saw a beautiful picture of a very healthy Pride and two cubs! Everyone here is ecstatic now. Erin is planning on sleeping out there tonight, putting more meat out, and finally capturing Pride and fitting her with a new, working radio collar. Yea!

this and that

Christmas at Harnas was low-key and nice, as usual. This is my 4th Christmas here! Christmas Eve the Bushmen children put on a show, singing and dancing. Then Santa showed up and had presents for every child, every volunteer, and every staff member. It was great. Christmas Day the children recreated the Nativity Scene and then we ate all day in between feeding the animals. That was it! Nice and simple.

Some odds and ends you might find interesting: Doing my laundry has become a contact sport--me vs. the ostriche. For some reason, when I hang up my clothes, the ostriche that hangs out near my house comes and pecks at the little clips, the clothes, and my hands. I chased him away several times, but he's persistent. Maybe he thinks there is food there. Who knows? They came up with the term "bird brain" for a reason.

Next, babysitters are very different things here. When Marieta needs someone to watch the baby baboons, she turns to her trusty dogs. Here's Captain giving the youngsters a ride. If you can get the dogs to go where you want, you get the baboons to go there, too.

Finally, we haven't found Pride yet. Today makes a week she's been missing. The day before Christmas, though, Erin and Anja found her tracks and those of her two cubs. They also found a recent kill, showing she's all right, her cubs are okay, and they're eating. That afternoon, I went with them to track her with Bessa, an expert Bushman tracker. We started at 3:00 and tracked until the sun set around 7:30. It was truly amazing to watch this guy track. He saw signs that were invisible to me. Unfortunately, we didn't find her and that night it rained, washing away the tracks. Back to square one, but at least we know that she and her babies are all right.

Pride the Cheetah

I was waiting to write this until I had an ending to the story, but I don't yet and don't know when I will, so here's what's been going on the past six days.

Pride, the star of Harnas, the face of the mission of Harnas, has gone missing. She lives in the lifeline with her two cubs, and Erin, the research person here at Harnas, goes out to find her every day to make sure she's hunting and taking care of her cubs. Pride was the first success story here--hand raised but now living the life of a real cheetah, hunting, bearing cubs, etc. She's one of the two cheetahs that I slept out with, the reason why I have a cheetah paw tattoo on the inside of my right wrist.

Six days ago, I went with Erin out to check on her, but we couldn't find her signal. We saw the 4 wild dogs out there, and the two cheetah brothers--Max and Mauritz--but we couldn't find Pride. We went out again that afternoon and scanned the entire 30 square miles that is the Lifeline area. We went out the next day and the next, driving around with volunteers on the roof of the truck, scanning and calling for her. Day 2 and 3 passed and we suspected that her radio collar had somehow gotten destroyed. We looked for tracks and found some but weren't sure if they were hers. Day 4 and 5 we intensified the search, using all 40 of the volunteers to walk through the bush, looking for her in suspected areas. Some days we were out there for 11 hours, until the sun set and we were forced to give up.

So it's day 6 and we still haven't found her. Erin is very frustrated: Pride is her "baby" and she's worried about the cubs, Merci and Denga. All we can do now is wait and hope she wanders out to the road when she hears the truck. Despite living the wild life now and hunting on her own, she still comes to humans when they arrive, purring and waiting to be petted, so we continue to call for her to come. She's amazing and all of us are worried. I'll keep you up to date.

One other notes on the lighter side: our Christmas tree--not the kind you'll see anywhere else, but very African, is set up by the lapa. All the decorations are like big toys for the baby baboons, and we spend most of our time at meal time chasing them away from the decorations. Most of the ornaments have been converted to "balls" for them to play with, and the tree is a haven for them to sit in. Look carefully in this picture and you'll see one on the branches. Christmas at Harnas!

the great escape

Just when I think I have nothing to write about in this blog, something happens!

I was walking to the lapa for breakfast this morning, crossed over the bridge that goes over the crocodile enclosure, and--oops--there's a full grown crocodile lying on the grass outside of its enclosure. Just sunning itself in the early morning.

Recently, the edges of the enclosure were moved, and I think the croc wanted to go back to where it had been. Easy to understand, rather shocking to see.

Well, you can imagine the commotion. Everyone gathering around, much figuring about how to get this massive beast (I've always called him Kramer--his friend Newman)  back where he belongs. I have to tell you, African men are very brave. First they tried to lure him along with some meat. He moved a little but it was pretty dangerous since he kept lurching toward the meat--and therefore lurching toward the man doing it, Johan.

Then they went to get a heavy duty strap, used a pole to get it around his gaping mouth--which was like trying to rope a bull at a rodeo. Finally they got it around the top of his jaw and then pulled him along like a resistant puppy. Truly amazing and a fun way to start the day.

On a different note, I got bit yesterday aftenoon by an African wild dog--a pretty fierce predator, even though this one was fairly young. He grabbed my fingers as I was closing a gate and ripped down. It could have been much worse. It's just a couple of gashes and some puncture wounds, although one gash was quite wide and probably could have used stitches. I only bring it up because I realized that with this bite, I've now been bitten by all the major animals at Harnas--lion, leopard, cheetah, baboon, vervet monkey, meerkat, and now wild dog--and I've got the scars to prove it. Quite an accomplishment, I think. :-)

Atheno

Some of you might remember when I was here last year and I fell in love with the cheetah cub, Atheno. He was about 4 months old then, fiesty, cuddly, and wild, depending upon the moment. Here's a picture of him and me then.

Well, he's all grown up now. He hasn't filled out yet--very skinny--but he's tall and lanky. He's staying in a huge enclosure out to the side of where the 3 cheetahs stay, so every day at some point, I walk through their enclosure and go to his.

Yesterday when I came through his gate, I called, "Atheno! Atheno!" and he came running from behind some bushes. I flopped down cross-legged on the ground under a tree, and he walked right up to me, licked my face, and then hung his head over my right shoulder. I just wrapped my arms around his neck and gave him a big hug. How magical it is to embrace a cheetah!

Then he started to purr, so I pulled my camera from my pocket, put it right in front of his face, and filmed it. I hope you can hear it.