Hello from Namibia!

Sunset over PAWS

Perivoli school children

Roadside bush clearing

Trimming trees in the caracal enclosure

If you're reading this I've been eaten by a cheetah.

　
　
Just kidding! (A leopard is more likely to have got me than a cheetah). Sorry for the lack of communication- internet in the wilds of Africa is not so great, and I have managed to lock my phone. But I have been writing my blog while I was on my project, ready to upload when I re-enter society, and it goes a bit like this....



　
People and Wildlife Solutions (PAWS)

Caracal enclosure after we cleared it

Our group at the school

The project I've been volunteering with over the last 2 weeks is PAWS, and it is the volunteer arm of the Africat Foundation. Africat was featured on a programme called Cheetah Kingdom on ITV last year following the work that Africat does. It works rescuing and rehabilitating wild cats (including leopards, lions, caracals and over 70 cheetah), and has the largest rehabilitation reserve in the world. PAWS volunteers are used as a free workforce for the foundation, who cannot afford to employ so many people to get the work done for them.

My working day starts at 6am, getting ready to leave at 7am for the day's activities. Work is mainly bush clearing- we have been clearing a roadside area so that cars can easily see any game animals that are likely to jump out at them. I can't tell you the number of scratches and thorns I have got stuck in my arms and legs! We have also been clearing a new enclosure at Africat for caracals for the new feeding run that will start shortly- this will give tourists the opportunity to see the cats being fed, and to see cheetah and caracals close up. It is especially important for the children who are invited from local schools to see the animals and learn about them, as it is the children who will most influence their parents. Another task we have done is poo and bone clearing. It doesn't sound glamorous, but for the cats in the welfare enclosures its is important to clear them to prevent disease spreading. This also gave us the chance to get up close to the cheetah, as we were in the enclosures with the cats!

We have also been working at the school on Okonjima to create a nature trail for the children to learn about nature and conservation. There is a small village close to the school where some of the 90 staff at Okonjima live with their families. Without the school on the reserve, the children would have to be sent to relatives to get an education, and they still have to be sent away if they want a high school education. I got the chance to help teach some of the children, and we all spent a good hour on the playground with them- they don't often get to meet outsiders so it was a treat for them.

At first it seemed that a lot of this work was being done for the benefit of the tourists, and of course most of it is (tourism on Okonjima Reserve where the project lives funds 75% of Africat's activities). Even though the money from the tourism is being fed back into the welfare of the cats, it was initially hard to see the bigger picture and the overall aim of Africat. However during my second week at PAWS there were vet checks and I was given the incredible opportunity to get close up to the animals and even help out. I also got the chance to talk to the directors of Africat, and the family that owns the reserve and is still heavily involved in all aspects of both Africat and Okonjima.

In February of this year Africat changed their ethos. When Africat started it was always meant to be for the rehabilitation of wild cats to get them back into the wild, however when farmers find a predator on their land they do one of 2 things: shoot it or call Africat. Africat would go and rescue the cat, no matter where in Namibia it was, and if it was healthy they would release it onto farmland where the farmers were amenable. However these cats would be put into an unfamiliar environment where they would have to re-establish their dominance in an area where other predators may already be, and would not be tracked or monitored in any way after their release. Over 1000 cats were released in this way, and nobody knows where any of them are, or even how many of them survived.

Cats that weren't healthy enough or were too young to be released were kept at Africat in what is called welfare enclosures, however once you make the decision to bring a cat into captivity you greatly reduce its chances of being re-released due to habituation. Cheetah are not born with the instructions on how to hunt and kill their prey- they have the instincts to chase, but they must be taught by their mother to trip the prey and to suffocate it (they have quite weak jaws). Sometimes cubs would be bought to Africat as the mother had been shot, and so the cubs had to be hand rasied. Cheetah that are too old, habituated or without the skills to hunt and kill their prey will never be released.

This was never the aim of Africat- to rescue and release cats and to keep cats that cannot be released. Last year, with the help of a stamp collection and a house left to Africat, they were finally able to fund a predator proof fence to put around the 44,000 acres of land they have acquired over the last 14 years. This gave them the space to be able to rehabilitate cheetah on the reserve. They have passed on the duty of rescuing and releasing cats from farmers to other organisations and are going back to their roots in education and rehabilitation. They estimate that about 35 of the 70 cheetah they have in welfare enclosures can be fully rehabilitated and released back into the wild. By bringing in children from surrounding schools to the education centre and letting them see the cats and learn about them, it is hoped that they will pass this message onto their parnets, who are likely to be farmers. They also want to work with farmers to teach them farming methods that allow them to protect their livestock from predators rather than killing them. All of this is an ongoing project, and Africat is constantly evolving and developing. I hope one day to come back and see all of the good work put into action.

But it hasn't all been plain sailing; a few days ago I missed an aardvark hole when we were out on a game drive and we nearly tipped one of the trucks, one day we grounded the truck trying to get out of a riverbed and broke the springs and at the weekend a leopard was spotted in the mountains behind us (we are situated at the base of the mountain!). Don't worry Mum, I still have 7 fingers left!

Next installment: Okonjima Reserve