Wildlife Conservation South Africa Project #20100

Provide food&care for ALL our animals for 1 year!

by DAKTARI Bush School & Wildlife Orphanage

Project Report | Mar 10, 2017
Dassies, dassies, dassies

By Sonja Heineck | Marketing Manager

Baby Dassie eating leaves

It finally happened…the dassies at DAKTARI now outnumber the people.

Just kidding! But we do have eight new dassies at camp since our last report. They are all settling in well to their lives here at DAKTARI and we are making plans to release the older dassies.

We now have four adults and four babies. One of the adults, Lulu, was born here at camp one year ago. The dassie was raised here and we plan to release her with the other adults soon.

The other three adults all came from a family in nearby White River. The dassies were raised there and are now looking forward to being released into the bush after a short stay with us. One of the new dassies, affectionately named Baba, needs a little extra attention as his weight continues to go up and down. So far, he’s doing well and he will be getting some extra cuddles from Michele and the volunteers.

The four babies came from Moholoholo Rehabilitation Centre in Hoedspruit. Sadly, the mother died and the babies must now be hand-raised if they are to survive. We are all taking turns feeding and cuddling the little ones. Once they are old enough, they will also join our older dassies on the farm.

To support the dassies and the other animals we have at camp, consider starting a recurring donation to make a monthly gift.

As always, thank you for your support that makes all of work possible and keeps our dassies happy and healthy.

Baba with one of our students

Three of our babies learning to climb

Pretty feeding a baby dassie

Links:

Volunteer with us (and the dassies!)

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Jan 6, 2017
Time to have a little fun

By Sonja Heineck | Marketing Manager

Kagiso and Mabine digging the meerkat tunnels

First, the entire DAKTARI team and all our furry/feathery/scaley friends would like to say a big THANK YOU for all of your support during the Year-End Campaign. All together, DAKTARI received $9,660 for our programs, with $2,355 going directly to funding our animal care in 2017. This is amazing!!

In the past week, we've already started working towards our 2017 goals. One of our big initiatives for this year is to focus on the animal enclosures of our existing animals, making them more natural and providing more enrichtment for them.

Willington, our animal care manager, worked with our volunteers and visiting Eco Club students to provide enrichment for three of our animals. First up was Martin, our cheetah. Will, our staff, and our volunteers are building a wooden platform in the shade for him to lie on. This addition was recommended specifically for cheetahs in captivity. Next up, Martin is going to get a "pool" for him to cool down in.

Our meerkats got the royal treatment next. Will worked with the six Eco Club students to build an underground tunnel network and house for the meerkats. Using thick plumbing pipes, a pathway was created to a wooden house. Then, they dug up the enclosure and laid it underground.

Finally, the children worked with our volunteers to build small tire swings for the mongoose. Our mongoose love to relax in hammocks so we though a swing would be a great addition for them. Pieces of tire were hung up using wires in the enclosure. The mongoose love their new swing :)

In the next few months, we'll be working on other enclosures and doing more enrichment activities! We can't wait to share them with you!

Sissi in her new swing

Camilla and Sibongile working on the swings

Working hard on the cheetah platform

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Nov 22, 2016
'Tis the [Baby] Season

By Sonja Heineck | Marketing Manager

Perrine, a volunteer, with Kiwi

If you remember my last report, I mentioned that it was the start of baby season in the South African bush. The past few weeks have definitely shown it to be in full swing.

Our baby nyala, Poquita, is doing extremely well! She has been released from her enclosure and is living in the nearby bush with our other two nyala from last season. She does still come back for her bottle of milk three times a day but she is starting to forage and eat with the other nyala as well. We will continue to keep an eye on her as she grows older but are so thrilled to see her thriving in the bush.

Just in the past two weeks, we've welcomed a female baby mongoose, two small baby birds, and another little squirrel. We also successfully transferred a baby vervet monkey that was brought to us to the Vervet Monkey Foundation in Tzaneen, South Africa.

Our baby banded mongoose, affectionately named Kiwi for her short brown fur, is our most popular addition. Since she is still so small, she does not bite like her older relatives. She is incredibly active, often running up and down the couches here at DAKTARI, and she is quite the chatterbox! DAKTARI has 5 other banded mongoose and we will introduce little Kiwi to the family when she is a bit bigger. We hope to release the whole family together once they all learn to get along.

The tiny baby birds are also keeping us on our toes. They have been tough to positively identify so we must wait until they've grown a bit before we will know what kind of birds they are. Yet unnamed, they are quite the handful. We have been feeding them termites, worms, and porridge every 30 minutes between 6am and 7pm. As you can imagine, it's a full time job!

Our baby squirrel is the newest addition and doesn't have a long story yet, but we'll update you on his progress.

The other animals at DAKTARI are enjoying the first rains of the season! We are beyond happy to report that we've started to see the rain that we so desperately need. In fact, it is raining as I write this report! With the intense drought we've been experiencing in our area of South Africa, it's a welcome sight.

It has been mostly good news here and we are excited to announce even more! On #GivingTuesday (November 29th), starting at 7am SAST, GlobalGiving will be matching donations to our project at 50% while funds last. We are asking all of our supporters to help fund our animal care in 2017 by making a donation to this project on November 29th. Your donations will give all 87 animals at DAKTARI a second chance at life.

Mark your calendars and spread the word!

Our small baby vervet monkey

Poquita getting a bottle

Teeny tiny birds

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