What would the world be without animals?
Hey guys!
If you have read my last posts, you know what my life at Daktari looked like and what we did on the weekends. The life at Daktari wouldn’t be the same without all the animals there. Because quite a big part of the philosophy of Daktari is about taking care of the animals together with the kids, I am really looking forward on sharing the different animals with you.
This post is not going to have all the animals in them and there is different reasons for that. The first one is that for some of them I simply don’t have any (good) photos. Secondly some of them you have already meet in previous posts. The last thing I want you to keep in mind that some of the animals are only there for a short time so if you decide to go there yourself you might see different ones.
The first animals I am going to introduce are the dogs! First up you see Mirabelle also known as Mimi. Next up is Nikita on the morning walk. Then we have two rare sights. Number one: Kenzo. He usually is the one who tries to get everyone to play with him and never stops running around. He also loves to jump into the water to get everyone wet afterwards. It must have been a super hot day for him to just lay down. Number two: Gucci. The oldest one of the four. He gets annoyed if Kenzo and Nikita play around all day and usually is too lazy to join us on the walks. So this must have been a happy day!!
The next one is a little weird because you don’t usually find them in that part of Africa but they have been held as pets and then given to Daktari. I’m talking about the Meerkats. In the photo they are currently playing with the enrichment the kids prepared for them. They put little bits of meat in some of them balls so they’d have to find a way to get them out. Next up our cute squirrels!! They love climbing on you and don’t seem to get that your legs don’t have the same grip as your cloths. I promised myself to restrict myself to only one photo per animal but these ones are my favourite so I couldn’t choose. Those little babies are Dassies. They are so young that they still have to be feed. And they also love climbing on you (not just the small one but even when they are grown up). It was crazy to see how much they grew up in the short time of two weeks I was there!!
Banchee the thick-tailed bush baby is another cute resident at Daktari. I loved watching him open the Marulas (a local fruit) and enjoying the sweet treats. At Daktari there are quite a few permanent residents. Lots of different birds were injured in some way that they can’t be released to the wild. Ostriches, Owls, Eagles, Buzzards and many more. In the last picture you can see Eeyore, the blind donkey that nevertheless always tries to steal some food of the table. At night this porcupine sometimes came for a visit. He is a friendly one that you can pet and that is always down for a carrot or piece of potato. He has been raised by Daktari a few years ago. If you want to see his wild friends you must be very quiet and patient.
Now we’re moving towards the bigger and maybe more dangerous animals at Daktari. Martin, the Cheetah, is a permanent resident at Daktari. He has lost his front teeth so he can’t be realised in the wild making him an ambassador for the kids. Next up is Dongo, the Wild Dog. He is also a permanent resident at Daktari because he got hit by car when he was young. The third photo is one of my favourite. Its Shangaan, Daktari’s caracal. I hope for him that he will be released to the wild at some point. At the moment he is kept at the reserve for teaching purposes. JP and Minnie are the two jackals and they must really like it at Daktari. Staff members have tried to wilder them out previously but they returned to the reserve.
I know the last photos are not about more animals that live at Daktari, but about a very special girl I got to meet in the first week of my stay! Blessing. That’s her name and it was her third birthday when I was there. So her mum managed to organise for her to come to the reserve but because she still had to work she couldn’t take care of her all the time. I happened to have most of the afternoon off so I spend my time with this little cutie. We drew together, played games and looked at the different animals at Daktari. We didn’t speak each other’s language but still found a way to communicate with each other. So thank you Rahaba for letting me meet your precious angle and Happy belated Birthday again, Blessing!!
This is my last post about my time at Daktari, so if you have any questions ask away!
Lena xx
