Volunteering at Antelope Park, Gweru, Zimbabwe 2011
Well we enjoyed our time so much at Antelope Park in 2010, we decided to go back in 2011, but this time for 4 weeks. We went back with several good friends we met there last year.
There was 1 major difference to the project in 2011 and that was Ngamo. The Ngamo release site is where a pride of lions is the first to be released by the African Lion Rehabilitation & Release into the Wild Program into a semi-wild environment. They are therefore the first pride that will give birth to cubs that will eventually be released back into the wild when they are in their third year (2013). During our time there the Ngamo pride already had given birth and the cub was 7 months old in August 2011. This is a brilliant step forward for the project as it shows these lions can hunt and breed, without any human intervention.
So one of the new volunteer activities, was to go into the release site in a vehicle with researchers to study the pride.
You can read more about the progress of the Ngamo Pride here – http://ngamo.wordpress.com/
Basically the life of a volunteer was the same as last year, but without the cub feeding as there were no very young cubs this time. There were 2 sets of walking lions, Penya & Paza and Lewa & Laili. The 2 sets of lions were just amazing to walk with, on our 1st 2 Ps walk we watched them stalking Giraffe, these are 7 month old cubs!
Day 2 was by far the most surreal day. We were called to go and help with putting out a fire in the park, this involved creating a big fire break to stop the fire reaching other parts of the park (yes fighting fire with fire). So my job was to set fire to a large area and keep burning it, till I looked back and the wind changed direction by 90 degrees. This took the flames over the road and within seconds the fire was now out of control. After several hours of more burning and flapping at flames with tree branches, the fire was out. This fire had burned 50% of the Ngamo site and there was a lot of people trying to ensure the lions were safe. It was a worrying time as you cannot just get out of the vehicles and shoo the lions to safety. In the end they didn’t appear bothered by it all particularly AT1 the cub. 30% of the whole park was burned to a crisp and I was told it was their worst ever fire, but 2 weeks later the green shoots of grass started to appear.
Milo roaring
The Ngamo pride
Random photos from the trip
