Clare in Africa

Here is an email from Clare Beacham in Africa
Hi all,How is the silly season going? Hope you are all ready for Christmas next week. Its hard to believe Christmas is only a days away, it hasn't felt like it over here, even though there are decorations in the streets and mall but its not the same as when you are buying Christmas presents and getting ready to finish work. I have just returned from 2 weeks volunteering at Na'an ku se Wildlife Sanctury about 45min west of Windhoek. I said in my last email I was going to Hanas, however that wasnt quite true. Naankuse was founded only a couple of years ago by a lady Marlice whose mother runs Hanas Wildlife Foundation, further north-west of Windhoek. Marlice grew up at Hanas, but apparently has differing views to her mother on how animals should be released and along with some other family issues it led to her starting her own sanctuary. Only being a couple of years old it is smaller than Hanas and there is a lot of work being done building facilities and enclosures. Naan ku se was until a few months ago trading under the Hanas name, but is now operating fully independently. They do still have ties with Hanas in that some animals come from there and some animals will also go from Naan ku se to Hanas. It was an amazing experience working there. They currently have 4 Caracals, 3 tame Cheetahs, 3 semi-tame Cheetahs, a number of wild Cheetahs, 5 lions, 2 wild dogs, 4 leopards (plus 3 wild leopards awaiting release), 15 teenage baboons, a mother and baby baboon and 2 baby baboons which the volunteers are hand raising, along with a number of farm animals including sheep, chickens, ducks etc. There were about 12 other volunteers and we lived in 3 bed rooms with shared kitchen area and bathrooms. The first week I was there I worked with the wildlife team. We were in groups of 4 and rotated jobs included food prep, which involved cutting up vegetables and fruit for the herbivors (baboons, pigs, rabbits, chickens ducks and other farm yard animals), then cutting up meat for the carnivors (lions, cheetahs, wild dogs and leopards). Cutting up the meat was probably the worst job. We had to cut up bits of horse or donkey which are stored in the freezer with an electric saw, this may be cutting a leg into slices or even cutting a donkey head in half for the lions! It was messy and quite hard work which I dont think anyone enjoyed doing. Probably the best job, apart from spending time with the Cheetahs, was feeding all the animals. The baboons were hard to feed as you had to take the bucket into their enclosure and some got quite nasty around feeding time and would bite. The bruises some people had from the baboons were incredible. Feeding the bigger animals like the lions was great, we had to throw the meat over the fence to them (which could be challenging when its a leg or half a donkey's head!). Other duties included cleaning enclosures by cleaning out the water holes and picking up old bones. We went into the wild dogs enclosure with sticks as they get a bit agressive towards you, but it was actually quite fun, especially when they stole one of the girls thongs as she was standing barefoot in the water hole cleaning it out! We also had had to help build a new baboon enclosure which meant digging trenches which was hot dirty work in 30 degree heat. The other job was enclosure and border patrol which was checking the fences for holes or digging under the fences. One of the easier more cruisy jobs. Walking the Baboons was an amazing experience. Anyone game enough to come on the walk could and we all started walking down the road and then the release the 15 baboons and they run after you and jump up on your shoulder for a ride or run along beside you. It was actually quite fun when I did it, but there have been problems in the past with some of them going a bit nuts and biting people. The second week I joined the research team which was great fun. We helped footprinting the Cheetahs for a new program they are trying to develop which would be like fingerprinting humans. They have done it for other animals like Lions and if it works for Cheetahs they should be able to tell by the tracks in the area if it is a Cheetah they know or a new one, which would make tracking them easier. We also got to go out on the the neighbouring farm and count game and count cheetah and leopard tracks. We were working with a Bushman tracker to do this who is amazing. Looking for tracks is done sitting on the bonnet of a ute while driving along the farm tracks, with the tracker next to you. We struggle to spot the cheetah tracks but Horhar spotted them with ease and when we stop to look at them knew if it was a male, female and if it was young old, large or small. The last night I stayed at the Lodge which was fantastic and some welcome luxury after the volunteer house. Volunteers got a discounted rate to stay at the lodge. Normal guests pay about 120 US while we only had to pay 35 US. A 35 dollars well spent. We had a great last night with the other volunteers having dinner and drinks at the lodge so it was a good way to say goodbye to everyone. I am starting to put some photos on facebook and will put some more up when I can. You can also check out the Na'an ku se website at www.ecoturism-namibia.co.na which shows some photos of the place and some of the animals they have had over the last couple of years. Hope you all have a great Christmas! I start my tour through Botswana on Sunday which Im looking forward to. Love Clare