N/a'an ku sê Guest Lodge & Wildlife Sanctuary-Preparing For Your Visit

Newsletters

February 2008 - New Baboons & New Baboon Camp

We have 2 new baby baboons, Jenny and Jeffrey. Both approximately one year of age. Fit and healthy. The new baboon camp is a major success with all our orphaned babies, of which we now have 16 in total. They enjoy swimming in the pool and playing on the wodden play structures that the volunteers have built for them. Well done Matt (from Canada) on your superb invention. The baboons love it!

January 2008 - Volunteer Boat Race

We had great fun building 2 boats for the race on the river. The rain has been heavy and the Otjahse river ran first the first time in 2 years. The volunteers took advantage and built a raft and a canoe and raced as fast as they could to win a bottle of Champers! Of course everyone including Carol and Jo, the volunteer co-ordinators, got thrown into the water to celebrate the winning team. Well done guys...great fun!

November 2007 - Proud Dela Has Given Birth to Her Foal!

We are so pleased to announce the birth of Julie, a beautiful female foal. She shares her birthday with Julie, a volunteer from New Zealand who was equally as proud as Dela when Cila announced that she would name the foal after her!

November 2007 - Wow! What An Amazing Experience - Moving Lions!

Wow! What a Saturday...Mark Jago a famous vetenarian arrived early Saturday morning to prepare to dart the 5 lions in camp number one with the intention of moving a lion and lioness to the newly built lion camp number two. The 2 males have been fighting recently for dominance of the females, so in order to put a stop to this we have to split them up. The volunteers have been waiting patently for this special day and the time came to join in this amazing project. We all jumped on to the cars and headed off to lion camp number one. Mark prepared five darts with Arno, our operations manager, who is a trained hunter. Both Mark and Arno managed to accurately aim and darted a lion and lioness who ran off into the protection of the bushes in the camp desperately trying to pull out the bright pink dart with their teeth. The effect of the dart would take approximately 10 minutes for them to fall asleep and another 35 minutes before they would wake up...not alot of time! Mark darted the remaining male but unfortunately the 2 remaining lionesses ran away and could not be seen from outside the fence. This meant Mark and Arno had to get into seperate cars and head off into the camp with Marlice and Rudie driving to find the lionesses and to keep and eye on the ones that had already been darted. If they began to awake Mark would inject them again to keep them asleep. 20 minutes passed with no success, then we heard another shot and Mark successfully darted one of the missing lionesses. Arno eventually found the remaining lioness but she had climbed into a tree and a clear shot could not be taken. Arno attempted but only shot her in the tail which did not take effect. Time was ticking away, so the decison was taken to work on the lions and lionesses that had been darted and quickly remove the older male and one of the young female from the camp by car. Mark worked on keeping them asleep and with the help of the team managed to load them onto the two cars and start to head out of the camp to transfer them to the new camp, about 10 minutes drive away. The very lucky volunteers hopped onto both cars to help hold the lion and lioness. What an amazing experience..up close and personal with these huge animals...believe me their faces were a picture! Unfortunately because the last lioness was still lose in the camp the volunteers were not able to carry out the planned camp clean up whcih includes removing the bones from feeding, removing the animal droppings and cleaning the waterhole..it was just too dangerous, but this was forgotten about as they travelled alongside these beautiful animals. We reached the new lion camp and successfully released the lion and lioness into their new home. Mark reversed the darting effect by injection to slowly wake them up as everyone carefully left the camp. They are still a little confused and nervous about their new home but starting to settle in well....We'll keep you updated with their progress.

In addition Mark helped us to radio collar Frank the African Wild Cat. We released him successfully and he is still coming back to the volunteer lodge for feeding morning and night. The volunteers will monitor his movements during the day to see where he goes and how far. The radio receiver can track up to 4km with a decent line of sight so it will be interesting to follow Frank around the farm. The plan is to capture, radio collar and release other animals, particularly Leopards so this is good practice for us and the volunteers using Frank as a pilot test.......Carol - Projects & Funds Manager

October 2007 - New Baby Meerkat is Born

We are pleased to announce the birth of 1 baby Meerkat. Twolly the proud mother and her male and female companions are showing off the little one to our volunteers who walk to their burrows of which there are four now to feed them 3 times a day. The adults are so used to human contact that they happily laze in the sun on their backs whilst the little one jumps around and breast feeds from Twolly. The volunteers have dug a drainage trench around the surface of the burrows to keep the rain from flooding their home. The Meerkats seem to sense that the volunteers are helping them to make their burrows safe and were not disturbed by the digging activity around them and the baby. In fact they just sat their and watched, inspecting the volunteers work!

We expect Twolly to get pregnant again very soon. Meerkats can have up to four litters per year. I guess the volunteers will have to set up a romantic setting for next time around!

The volunteers plan to write a Meerkat Diary to keep an eye on the little ones progress. We will radio collar the Alfa female in the coming weeks so that the volunteers can track their movement and activity. Meerkat Manor eat your heart out! We'll have to think of a new name for our family...not Whiskers! Any suggestions for a name are welcome. One lucky winner will win a discounted price for the length of their visit here as a volunteer. The competition closes on 31st December when we will choose the best name. Please email Carol at carolnaankuse@iway.na

We were given the opportunity to assist in a local game capture. Our goal was to catch 29 female Waterbucks in one day. We were each assigned areas which we had to man with one of the capture team. We either assisted with the curtains or the wall supports. Wehn we were in position a samll helicopter was used to round up the game and direct them our way. We has to remain still, silent and out of sight, which for the wall supporters meant lying flat ont he ground. The tension mounted as the helicopter kept circling and we waited for our due. The siren sounded as the Waterbuck entered the mouth of the Bomer. Those of us on the outer curtain ran our fastest to make sure the Waterbuck couldn't back track. Those at the wall supports had to spring from a horizontal hiding position whilst erecting the heavy poles to direct them further into the Bomer to their final destination of the awaiting trailer. At the end of the day we successfully captured 23 Waterbuck including a Ram. We were all delighted with our achievements and although we were exhausted it had been a once in a lifetime experience that we would always treasure.Volunteers

Baboons: The Baboons are becoming cheekier every day. Nemo and Bobby are teaching the babies all their tricks on how to escape. Finally we have restocked on smaller nappies for the babies so the volunteers can now enjoy their nights with clean beds!
Meerkats: They came out of the stone castle to join our daily Baboon walk to the football pitch. They enjoy trying to attack the babies but bodyguards Nemo and Bobby are there to protect them and keep the Meerkats at bay.
Mongoose: (Longtail and Tessa relationship is blossoming more than ever!) She is becoming braver and now enjoys daily visits to the Cheetah and Wild Dog enclosures. However she hasn’t learnt to avoid the electric fence and often gets a shock with turns her into a big ball of fur. Stumpy is becoming more evil than ever and his bite count is increasing every day. His favourite time to strike is during the lunchtime hours when the volunteers are trying to relax in the sun.
Pig: Pig (known as Pig or Babe) is looking for a gentleman friend. She is on a diet and has started a daily workout routine. After her training to the football pitch and back she enjoys a nice soak in the cool waterhole. Hopefully soon her training will pay off and she will find the pig of her dreams and live happily ever after!
Spot: The African Wild Cat is enjoying her new found freedom. She has made friends with Frank another Wild Cat. We still leave food at night outside of the clinic because she has made her new home there.
Horses: The horses are now back in the enclosure on the farm. They were sent to graze for a few days on the new plants that are growing on the other side of the farm to ensure they get good nutrition. Horse riding has become a daily activity. Della is heavily pregnant and temperamental so is usually ridden by Carol and Marlice but that will stop now until after the birth of her foal (can’t wait!). Carol bought a new horse called Spirit who has joined Della so the volunteers also have the opportunity to ride, feed and groom him as well. He is the boss of the camp!
Lions: A new camp is being built by the volunteers and Bushmen. The reason for this is because of fighting between the two male lions. One has been outcast from the group and was injured during the fighting. He is much better now and seems to have accepted that he is no longer the dominant male. We will move him with one of the 3 lionesses to the new lion camp when it is complete. This will be an exciting experience because all 5 lions will have to be darted to put them to sleep whilst we move the lion and lioness out and in to the new camp! That’s all for now……. Jo (UK) & Tessa (Germany)

In June the volunteers finally moved into their new house! One weekend everyone helped to move the furniture and of course the smaller animals which were living around the old house – Babe (the house pig which is getting bigger and bigger), Spots (the African Wild Cat), Longtail & Stumpy (the 2 Mongooses) and all the baby baboons. Our 3 meercats Twolly (her leg is healed), Koerrie and Moerrie made their self’s home at the Bushmen houses and just receive meat from the volunteers once a day down there. Otterjasie the warthog is hiking around the farm trying to make friends with wild warthogs. The small animals all got new cages close to the new volunteer house and the baby baboons got a nice playground with swings, balls and loads of climbing opportunities. We now have 5 small baboons in total. In June we got two new skinny male babies whose mothers where shot. After struggling with drinking and eating Dave and Doinkivan are now doing fine being spoiled with sweets, fruits, muesli, milk and juice. The 2 new babies are staying with the 3 bigger ones in the playground during the day. At night time all the baboons found a cosy place in the volunteer beds. Cila - Volunteer Manager

The new volunteer house is nearly finished and soon moving in will be celebrated. There are 5 dorms with 3-4 beds in the right side of the buidling, a small kitchen, 2 bathrooms with 3 showers each, toilets and washbasins. On the right gableroof side of the house an additional living tent where the volunteers will be eating and may sit comfortably together in the evenings will be built. On the left side of the building there will be space for a small veterinary station (to treat simple injurys), a garage and the area for the daily food preparation. The volunteer house is located between the connection path of Rudi and Marlices house and the cheetah enclosure. And the view is something to be proud of too… Just about 100m away from the house the volunteers have built a small paddock for our riding-horses together with the bushman workers from the farm. The horses are brought regulary to the paddock, brushed and ridden. In addition they’ve got room to move about in their pasture (approx. 200 ha).
At the moment two horses are staying at N/a’an ku sê, but at the beginning of June approx. 4 other riding-horses will arrive here too. The future plan is, that the volunteers will be patrolling the fence around the part where the lodge is (approx. 1200ha) on horseback.
The construction for the lodge is in good progress as well. Most of the buildings are finished for most of the part. The windows are still missing, the the construction of the interior isn’t finished yet and the painting has still to be done.
Amongst the wild game, rumour must have been spread that N/a’an ku sê is a safe place, because there are lots of wild kudus, oryx, springbucks, warthogs and many more. We even spotted an eland during the last few days…
Since May two additional animals are being taken care off at N/a’an ku sê. From people in Windhoek we got a male named Bobbie, who isn’t much younger than Nemo. A couple of days ago a small female arrived, she’s not much older that 2 months. Apparently her mother was killed by a car and when passer-bysl baby baboons a saw that the litlle baby baboon was still moving, they brought it to N/a’an ku sê. Lucky enough, Dori, as we call her, didn’t get hurt by the accident....Cila - Volunteer Manager

Today, I decided to take time out. I went and sat at the newly built seats and table, not too far from the volunteer house. While I looked at all the names of the volunteers who helped to build this little rest place, my mind started to wander and than I realized… How quickly time goes by. It feels like yesterday that I moved to the farm. I thought about all the volunteers who came out here, I thought about the work we have done and also the fun we had. Then I wondered what each one is doing right now and I wish that you could be here to see what we have accomplished so far. So, it is by these thoughts that I will give you an overview of what happened on N/a’an ku sê in the past 3 months… just to refresh your memory… because we forget so easily… because the world around us demands our full attention… and we forget about the little things in life…
Right at the beginning when we had no animals on the farm and also no place to stay we had to drive everyday backwards and forwards between the farm and Windhoek. When we arrived on the farm it was work, work, work… sanding down chairs, painting chairs and then sanding them down once more (by the way they look good). We had to build waterholes for the enclosures… we could not use our hands for a couple of days. Than there was game capturing, which we know from experience is something that cannot be done in one day…
There was the Afrikaans rock concert where certain volunteers lost there hearts… from time to time we do stumble upon them. It was the highlight of our lives when our five lions and two leopards came. The volunteers moved to the farm and I had to start cooking… at the beginning I forgot a couple of times that I have to feed my guests… but they survived. The volunteer house is known as “voluntary slimmers lodge” ever since or in short “slimmers camp”. We collected two caracals, which we later on released on the farm (they were not keen on leaving the trailer). We had to tell them nicely that we loved them and enjoy there company, but that they have to go and that they are more than welcome to pop in from time to time. I have spotted caracals a few times after that, but it seems they have forgotten me. Then there is Babe (house pig), Longtail and Stumpie (two mongoose), Koerie and Moerie (two meerkats), Minxie (small spotted genette), Nemo (my baboon baby) and the African Wild Cat that keep us occupied. Minxie unfortunately died (we still await the results from the laboratory). Then one weekend Arno (our operations manager) together with Dana and Kate went to Harnas to bring Aiko, Aisha and Kiki to the new farm. They are our darling cheetahs and we are very happy to have them with us on the new farm. Together with the cheetahs came the two Wild Dogs, Kaleb and Liska.
Then came Twolly, she is a little Meerkat that had a fractured leg. Twolly is on a high dose of calcium to see if the leg will heal better after it fractured a second time, only on a different location. She is so much better with the calcium supplement we put on her food. We are confident that the leg will heal by itself.
Our two latest arrivals are Otterjasie and Spots. Otterjasie is a male Warthog about one year old. Otterjasie has one big problem… he thinks he is human. Every day or so he comes to the house, demands breakfast, lunch or supper and then casually strolls off again into the bush… normally he ends up on Marlice’s stoep. Here his favourite pass time is to see how many pot plants he can destroy in one morning.
Spots is our newest arrival. He is a young African Wild Cat and he is full of fun. He like to play with Spotty (a jack russel) and the two of them have hours of fun. Feeding time with Spots is fun, because this little cat thinks he is a lion. Watch out when you feed this little guy, he might just tackle you to the ground and have you for lunch. The lions are very happy in their huge enclosure. Their favorite pass time is chasing guinea-fowls. The leopards Keanu and Timbila are not quite sure what to do in their big enclosure, so they wait until it’s time for enclosure patrol and then they join the volunteers for the patrol. The volunteers check the outside and our two cats the inside of the fence… we make sure from both sides that there are NO holes in or under the fence. Cila - Volunteer Manager

Baboon Walk: To introduce the new volunteers to the baboons all the volunteers and the baboons Nemo and Bobby went out for a walk. It was a hot afternoon and the baboons had fun playing and running around the volunteers. When we reached the bushman houses where the meerkats are the territorial animals, the baboons where chased around by the 3 meerkats. Nemo and bobby jumped to the volunteers for protection. After feeling brave again the baboons eventually walked on their own again only to be met by the mongooses who also chased them and they jumped to the volunteers again. Let’s hope the meerkats and ongooses enjoy their power while they can because in a few years time will be a different story! (Rebecca Boxal & Sarah Brewer, England)

The Horse and the Snake: On Wednesday 20th June, Cila the volunteer manager noticed that Jenny, one of the riding horses, had a swollen stomach. Concerned for Jenny an emergency vet was called out to the farm. It seems poor Jenny had been bitten by a puffadder. Jenny was sedated then given a drip. She has to be given painkillers and antibiotics along with plenty of food and three walks a day. She’s eating well and will hopefully have a fast recovery. (Jacqueline Cadger, Scotland)

Football 2:1 for the Bushmen: A welcome break to our quiet Sunday , 1st July, afternoon came in form of a friendly game of football against the local Bushmen. Talking tactics and trying our most to scare of the competition, the volunteers and some members of the management team headed in transit to the pitch and awaited the arrival of the “home team”. Although support from fans was strongly lacking on our side, we seemed to pick up some good and much needed footy tricks from Scooner and Spotty, two Jack Russel that had come to ‘sniff’ out the competition. Once split into 2 teams, the game, which was quickly turning slightly competitive, began.
The first half saw the volunteers looking embarrassingly insteady on their feet and was already trailing 1-0. Even Otterjasie, the warthog, walked out onto the pitch to pickup the pace and move us swiftly into the second half. However, our team mascot’s help was short lived due to a noticeable injury on his left leg, leaving our team at an unfair advantage. But team volunteers did not give up and the second half gave way to an equaliser, leaving us 1:1.
After a lot of blood, sweet and almost tears the volunteers were left defeated after a sneaky goal from the Bushmen putting them ahead as the winners.
Despite a few ‘on pitch’ fours and countless off side manoeuvres the game was really good fun and lifted all our spirits leaving us knackered but pleased with our efforts. Let’s just hope next meeting will bring the volunteers an opportunity to equal the score - and if that fails, a word about the number of goalies in one goal will definitely be questioned! (Rebecca Boxal, England).

Wild Dog Waterhole: On the 26th the volunteers were given the unfortunate task of cleaning out the wild dog waterhole. We had to remove our shoes, roll up our trousers and get into the urine-filled pool to scoop out the dirty water. It took approximately half an hour to empty. It was a smelly and unpleased task but was certainly worth it to see the wild dogs enjoying some clean fresh water. (Michael Petri, England)

Cheetah Time: One afternoon the volunteers went off to play with the Cheetahs. On the way there Longtail, one of the mongoose decided to follow. When we arrived at the enclosure it seemed Kiki, one of the female Cheetahs, was too interested in Longtail, so one of the volunteers walked Longtail back to the volunteer house. The rest of the volunteers brushed and played with the 3 Cheetahs until sunset. (Jacqueline Cadger, Scotland)

Enclosure Patrol: As part of our daily routine we have to do enclosure patrol. We walk around the fencing of the enclosures and check that they are safe and secure. On this particular day, myself and two of the other volunteers were walking around the lion enclosure when we noticed a large hole in the outer fence. We carried on walking in an attempt to distract them away from the hole and radioed Cila. At this point we spotted another long hole in the fencing. When Cila arrived we at first suspected it had been broken into, but Cila and Arno noticed the track marks of 2 Kudus, which had broken into the enclosure and then out again at the other hole. It was a rush then to re-wire the fences and we the volunteers had to keep the lions distracted, which was quite scary as the electricity had been turned off. It made us all realise the importance of enclosure patrol! (Sarah Brewer, England)

Joe’s Beerhouse, Windhoek: Sunday, 15th July, the volunteers went to Windhoek for their lunch. They went for a buffet at Joe’s Beerhouse. There were many foods on offer such as springbok, eland and ox tongue. Springbok seemed to be a favourite amongst the volunteers. The volunteers were delighted with the selection of food and filled their stomachs to the brim and topped it off with a shot of Jägermeister.

Football 2:1 for Bushmen again: Recently in the N/a’an ku sê Premiership, volunteers and management had a rematch against the Bushman. The game was intense with each team scoring a goal one after the other. Throughout the game all rules were discarded and the game became heated with both sides eager to win. Unfortunately for the volunteers / management they were beat again with a final score of 2:1 to the Bushmen.

Twolly: The suricate with the broken hind leg is well again. Yesterday she joined the two grown up suricates who are moving free around the farm and are only appearing from time to time to feed. First, we had doubts if the three of them would get along well, but now they seem to be a happy family. Now they are living together with the farm workers.

Sleep out: Our challenge of the evening consisted in preparing a potjie“ (a kind of pot of stew that is cooked over the fire), which resulted to taste quite good in the end. Each of the volunteers was supposed be on guard duty between 1 and 4am for an hour. Hhhhmmm, well, around 10 o’clock we all crawled in our sleeping bags and no one was setting an alarm clock to get up… so no night watch… Sorry Cila! We had brought loads of blankets and warm clothes, therefore we were able to sleep warm and well. Full of amazement we discovered in the morning, that it was so cold, that the top of our sleeping bags and blankets were FROZEN! Bbbrrrrrrrr, shiver… But all in all we really enjoyed the "sleep out" and despite the missing night watch no-one has been eaten alive by a leopard or a snake!

Stalky: To me 'volunteering' means improving the lives of injured or orphaned animals that arrive at N/a’an ku sê. To date, the highlight of my stay has been caring for 'Stalky', the frisky male Meerkat who came to the volunteers in a small wire cage. The first 7 days he would only eat raw eggs and sliced apple and I thought I must have encouraged him to be 'vegetarian' like me, but with lessons in digging and a little help in finding beetles and moths he is now enjoying fresh meat and is constantly digging in search for more! Presently, the volunteers and I are building a large Meerkat enclosure that I would like to finish before I depart so I know he will be happier in his spacious home and eventually he shoule be intriduec to and live with the other 3 Meerkats that are close by and have the company of others. Louise Carter - September/October 2007 (Australia)

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Volunteers Diary

A Dream or Reality?