I didn’t realise I was arriving in the second poorest country in the world with 96% unemployment where if you had a job you had to wait months to get paid and where one in four people were HIV positive. There are posters in the clinics advertising circumcision as a means to prevent aids and even in the clinic there is no soap and running water to wash your hands.
Mr Connolly, who owns the reserve I’m staying at, Antelope Park only has one arm. It was eaten by a lion.
I actually do have soap in Antelope Park. It's built to take in western tourists money and the charity, African Impact, spend my money preserving the lion population which is the main way to keep revenue coming into Zimbabwe. Even though I have soap, the accommodation is still very basic - like army barracks and its certainly not clean. There’s a thick layer of dust over the units in my room, much like the level of dust I’m accustomed to seeing in a stables or old sheds. I told myself not be so precious and get on with it. It was still reassuring to hear my room mate tell me a few days later that if I hadn’t arrived at the same time as her she would have probably cried.
On the upside which is about 90 % I have done some pretty eye opening stuff. Last Friday, exactly two weeks after I left my office job I was helping dart a lion and race across the bush to anther enclosure before it woke up. It was a big and dominant male lion that had to be moved. He was selected on the release programme to impregnate two females that are good hunters. Selecting good traits from the gene pool was key so that their cubs can be successfully released into the wild. Both females were showing swollen pregnant bellies and the the male was becoming aggressive towards them. Around 12 people went up to their breeding enclosure in two pick up trucks. Leanne is the onsite officer certified to administer drugs. Her husband also worked on the reserve and was providing muscle to move the 220 Kg male. Leanne had initially underestimated his weight and needed to top up the tranquiliser after the lion was darted. Also in tow was Dan the site leader and three local lion handlers, and of course myself and some other volunteers like me.
When we got there the lionesses had been moved to a small side cage and the male, Etosha, was roaming around the enclosure himself. I watched as Leanne loaded her gun and aimed her shot. It was a perfect shot first time right on top of his thigh. The lion roared instantly and then started pacing. We hid in the bush to watch as our presence was stressing him out and he was fighting the tranquiliser. The lion handlers and Dan went into the enclosure once he lay down. He started to sleep but let out a light roar when they tested him with a tickle in the inner ear. Leanne added anther two shots of tranquiliser before we moved him. It was touch and go whether to move him or not as he was still a little unsettled and also the first large dose would soon be starting to wear off. The lion was rolled onto a stretched and carried out by 5 men, the nslid onto the back of the pick up. It was then a race to get to the other enclosure about 2 km across the bush. Dan drove the volunteers in the second truck. A rickety rackety open top safari vehicle. It came to close to many of us falling off as Dan sped along turning sharply to avoid rocks and holes and then bumping over other ones. It was exciting. What if the lion woke up? He could attack the lion handlers sitting in the back of the first truck with it. Or jump out and feed on one of us.
We got there and unloaded Etosha off the truck then off the stretcher in a single enclosure neighbouring the enclosure his less dominant brother Echo was in. It was lovely to see how happy Echo was to see Etosha. He came up to the shared fence straight away and watched.
Etosha was given the reversal drug and his temperature ad breathing rate were monitored to assess how close he was to coming round. When his breathing picked up we were told to get out of the enclosure quickly. I watched him come round. He took longer than I thought. His hind legs were dead for longer than the rest of his body so he dragged his ass around like a baby bum shuffling. He dragged himself to his brother and rubbed his face against the fence to touch him. This is how lions greet each other.
We left him on his own for the evening before putting him in the same enclosure as his brother. Echo had been bullied by another two lions in his enclosure so by moving his dominant brother back in, it is expected that Etosha will fight to demonstrate his dominance and protect Echo who although big was noticeably smaller in frame and his mane didn’t cover over half his body and was less bushy. Apparently the size of the mane is linked to testosterone production and dominance.
That was an educational afternoon and a nice alternative to the planned activity which was building fire breaks to protect the reserve from bush fires. This job needs doing as we were coming into the dry summer.
This morning I just completed a snare sweep. The reason for the snare sweep is more interesting than I had thought. Its not just to protect the animals in the reserve. Its to protect against orphaned children. The streets are full off orphans. Fathers, breadwinners, have no means to feed their kids. The government took the farm land which provided many people a livelihood as a farm hand. Living in something like a shanti town on the edge of the reserve one can understand how poaching is temping and one of the few options going. Poaching is also illegal. When the father is caught poaching he goes to court and is put in prison for 6 -12 months. Meanwhile the woman, who is brought up to understand she is a second class citizen, does not know how to earn money and looks to other men. She repays them with the only thing she can offer. The chance of contracting HIV is high. Then when her husband comes back from prison she would not dare tell him what she has done. Both parents contract HIV and later die, leaving a typical family size of 6 children as orphans. By picking the snares, Antelope Park are getting themselves out of a no win situation of either reporting poached animals to the police and creating a story that goes much like above, or they let it slide and send out a message that poaching is ok. African Impact charity try to help the orphaned children and street kids by providing a structure way to deliver food to the community in the way of drop in centres where the street kids get one wholesome meal a day. I will be helping serve the meals at the drop in centre tomorrow.
Now off for some more beef stew. The staple for every meal except breakfast which is always fired eggs. I can hear the drums which is the signal that its ready.