That pretty well concludes the AI project in Livingstone, next it was off to the Lion Encounter located in the Mosi-oa-Tunya Park about 20 minutes outside Livingstone (check out the link to learn more about the Dambwa Release Pride @ https://www.lionalert.org/news-category/show/cat-id/1). I was picked up around lunch time, by Cara Watts, the manager of the Lion Project, in a big safari truck, which already had 2 of the new volunteers whom she had already picked up from the airport, on board, Margaret & Claire (mother and daughter) from Yorkshire, UK. I jumped on after loading my many bags, which seemed to take up ½ the truck and we headed off, stopping at the market first to pick up another volunteer, Yvonne from DC (originally from Scotland) who took the opportunity of a trip to town to pick up a few things. We arrived at the volunteer house in short order, given our room assignments and given time to unpack out things.
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Volunteer house. The original home of the Indian family that now owns Thorntree River Lodge just around the bend, nearer the river
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| many of the paintings of Indian deities still graced the walls of the house and outbuildings |
I was bunked with Kat a young lady from Bermuda and Karin from Scandinavia, (who happened to be older than me! This looked promising!) After unpacking I took a tour of the house which had 3 other bedrooms and 1 bathroom!!!
Later discovered another bathroom on the outside of the house, which was fine to use during the day, but none of us felt comfortable to use it at night. Margaret and Claire shared a room with Yvonne (who unfortunately was leaving the next day, I really liked her) and Jocelyn from Melbourne (another ‘older’ lady). There was another mother daughter team, from Belgium, who shared the second bedroom, but they stayed to themselves for the most part and spoke very little English. The final bedroom was taken by our token man, Roger from Alberta. He arrived the following day from the sister project in Zimbabwe, where he told us there were approx. 30 or more volunteers; glad I didn’t pick that project!
The kitchen area was kept locked (for some reason), but there was a huge long table in the front (or back, depending on which was you looked at it I suppose) of the house, where we would eat our meals, a comfortable lounge area, the bathroom, with hot or cold trickling water, and a small yard where we could sit an enjoy the outdoors.
There were numerous posters and pictures tacked up to explain about the project and areas, a white board in the lounge, where our daily tasks were written each evening (much to our anticipation every night) and a notice on the back of one of the doors telling us, along with pictures, the snakes to watch out for, during our walks and I suppose around the yard, including Spitting Cobra’s and Mamba’s!
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| map of the release and breeding site in the Dambwa Forest |
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| what the abbreviations mean |
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| daily work schedule, you can see on this particular day I started with a walk with the 2 Z's (abbreviations for the cubs names) then Behaviour enrichment (yeah, pooh for toys) and then off up to the Dambwa enclosures for maintenance. |
There were a couple of friendly dogs and a few wandering kitty cats about as well.
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| we often spotted these little frogs in the backyard. They were rather chameleon like, able to change their colours, depending where they sat, or time of day |
By the time the wander and the unpacking was done, we all had a relax outside (yeah, there were 4 other smokers!!) and it was time for dinner. End of first day.
In the evenings, I would try and get on the net at the dinner table. I called this area 'The drop zone'! The light caused any number of beasties to come flying around, half landing within the fixture and frying (how there wasn't a fire from the amount of bugs piled within) and so many little lack crusty bugs falling, that the table was often covered with them.
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| see another little toad...hiding neath the stairs, one evening |
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wiring and roof leaks |
You will be working at the Lion Encounter which is Stage One of the African Lion and Environmental Research Trust’s (also known as ALERT) 4 stage African Lion Rehabilitation & Release into the Wild Program. The Lion Encounter is based at Thorn Tree Lodge within the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park. Tourists also come to visit the project through one off activities like lion walks or cub viewings and it is through your project fees and the fees from these tourists that Stage One of our project is paid for. A portion of your project fee also goes towards funding the later stages of the program which require lots of land, fencing and research equipment such as vehicles, radio collars and micro chips. ALERT asks that their lions are taken out of their enclosure into the Bush as much as possible to ensure they get used to their natural habitat and can practice their natural hunting instincts. One day we intend to release these lions into large enclosures (10000 acres) where they will live a natural life, hunting and fending for themselves. Obviously, we cannot release lions who have seen nothing but the inside of an enclosure and it is for that reason we encourage them to spend as many hours as possible outside of their enclosure – even if they just sleep under a tree! It is through this process that our lions learn about the sights, sounds and smells of ‘the bush’ – their natural habitat. Clients, staff and volunteers walk with the lions and act as the dominant members of the pride. The lions respect the more dominant members (although this doesn’t stop them being cheeky!). The lions in Stage One are still cubs and so are of an age where they are too young to be left alone meaning that when the people (the dominant pride members) walk – the lions follow as to be left alone is scary for them. The staff also use a few “calls” the lions are used to including “come on…” and “come cubs!” with a mixture of lion imitation noises to encourage them. As a volunteer at Stage One you will be assisting with the cubs’ upbringing and all aspects of their life. This will include, taking the young cubs on walks, feeding them, preparing their meat, completing snare sweeps of the area the lions live in, cleaning enclosures and interacting with the young lions. This project prides itself on being a “hands on” project where our volunteers get a chance to be involved in many areas of the lions’ well being.
A typical day may look like this:
0615: Its rise and shine early as you prepare for another beautiful day in Africa.
0645: Volunteer meeting – you will need to be present at the volunteer meeting, where you will find out your activities for the day.
0700: Head out on your morning lion walk. This may be accompanied by guests, or it might be a ‘volunteer and staff only walk.’ Sometimes these lion walks can last up to 6 hours and you may need to take a packed breakfast. Sometimes you will be on data collection, recording behavioral observations for ALERT’s vital research.
0900: If you aren’t on a long walk with the lions, its breakfast time for you! This is normally a cooked breakfast, except for Wednesdays and Saturdays when we have a continental breakfast which includes croissants, scones, fruit salads and porridge.
1000: Back to work! This may be a variety of activities ranging from meat prep, to enclosure cleaning, from another lion walk to snare sweep. Sometimes you will be planning for any work you are involved in within the community or heading out to track elephants for our research study.
1300: Lunch
1430: Another Lion Walk or a trip to Dambwa Forest to enclosure clean or feed the lions there.
1700: End of the day. Sometimes lions may need to be fed before you finish completely, or enclosures may need a final clean. All lions must be securely back within their enclosures before anyone leaves!
1830: Chill out time at the house. You may head in to town for a few beers and for a change of scenery but if not there are DVDs, card games, and good old fashioned chatting to pass the time at the house. The early start and packed days usually mean early nights anyway. The evenings are spent in the house and as we are surrounded by African bush with its interesting residents – such as elephant, buffalo and hippo – we are confined to the house unless we decide to drive into Livingstone town itself.
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