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Wildlife Foundation – My personal look back

Tracking at the wildlie

A motor boat – they sound like little motor boats. I don’t care if you agree or not, I do like that picture. It’s a constant deep humming sound, not too low-pitched yet very bassy. The low-lying sun throws long shadows over the huge enclosure of the natural bush land.
I’m surrounded by the source of the humming motor boat sound – or better – surrounded by the sources: five cheetahs. Lean, long legged cats with a dark speckled fur. The number of dots and their size vary from cheetah to cheetah – kind of like their personal finger prints.

I’m here every day. I’m either accompanied by another volunteer or, as it’s today, I’m here all by myself. Normally, this isn’t allowed – safety issues. It’s my third trip to the rescue centre for wildlife – therefore I know how to act around cheetahs and I’m walking relaxed and confident between them. As orphans they have spent their whole life, starting at an early age, in the rescue centre. When I met them for the first time they were about knee-high; no they have reached my waist. But where is that place where you can be so close to those animals, both in a good and positive way?

The five cheetahs and me in one line

“Harnas” is Afrikaans and means something like armor or protection. The Harnas Rescue centre for wildlife has its origins in Namibia in 1978. There founder bought a mistreated vervet monkey from poachers. Since then a lot has changed and Harnas is still growing.

Today the Harnas rescue centre is a former cattle farm with about 10 00 hectares of bush land. It’s a home for a huge number of animals like lions, leopards (my favourites), cheetahs, caracals, guenons, baboons (not my favourites), wild dogs, mongooses, springboks, impalas, zebras, elands, gnus, ostriches, vultures, warthogs, meerkats and so on and so on…

Its focus lies on orphaned, mistreated, hurt and/or kept imprisoned animals from Namibia. And those have to be fed and nursed which of course costs money; perfect for a volunteer program. Amongst others, the caring for the animals is funded by the volunteer program which offers extraordinary experiences.

But: “Harnas is not for pussies!” Being a volunteer doesn’t mean petting animals all day long. It means hard and strenuous work under the African sun each and every day, seven days a week, for a time span between two weeks and three months. Yet, the work isn’t as physical strenuous as at the rhino rescue centre in South Africa where I worked in January and February 2017.
Link: Rhino Sanctuary

What you should never forget is, you’re working with wild animals. You need respect, good common sense and some effort. The meat for the animals doesn’t fall from the sky; it has to be cut to size. Often donkey meat is fed to the animals because it’s low-fat, cheap and is provided by the farmers nearby. Every part of the animal is used; the wild dogs for example love all kinds of offal. If you’re out of touch with reality and have your head in the clouds filled with thoughts like cats could be put on a vegetarian diet (that’s like feeding cows with meat) you shouldn’t come to Harnas as a volunteer. It’s definitely not a flower-power, fluffy pony farm.

Lion “Trust”

What a typical day at Harnas looks like:

6.30am
Getting up with up to 3 other people in a cabin in Volunteers-village; it’s a small number of cabins, the toilets and showers are in the centre of the village.

7.00am
Breakfast in the community house in the village; afterwards a 1.5 kilometers walk to the main farm

8.00am
“Treemeeting” people are divided into groups according to their work plan, e.g. prepare the food, cleaning the enclosures, AM tour, look after several animals, research in the wildline, farm work, building/repairing enclosures, read animal tracks, walks with different kinds of animals etc.

12.30pm
Lunch in Volunteers-village; break

03.00pm
“Treemeeting” new allocation of the tasks of the day

07.00pm
Dinner in Volunteers-village, leisure time

As you can see, a day in Harnas is packed. This time it was different for me, because I came as a photographer; but didn’t change the daily schedule.

My last picture of Warthog “Bacon”

What has changed since 2015:

At the end, I want to list what has changed since my last stay in 2015, for those who have already been to Harnas

The food was to some extent very good. At least the first two weeks of my last stay, by and by it got worse, similar to 2015: always pasta, always minced meat sauce, almost no alternation.

Showers and toilets are way cleaner and are checked daily.

Of all the volunteers from 2015 only Tyla and Bonnita are still there.

Less volunteers, mostly between 20 and 30 persons. Only a few Scandinavians; in 2015 they made up to 60%, now 85% are (unfortunately) German-speaking (that was quite a shock for me after my long stay in South Africa)

Lapanight isn’t in Boma anymore, it’s now in the village. No more Amarulasong and no more dancing, in general less atmospheric as in 2015

Atheno is back in his old enclosure.

Leopard “Missy Joe” changed enclosure with caracal “Bonnie” <3 and "Juliette"

Of all the meerkats only “Hänsel” is still alive. (Got info Hänsel died now also)

Berta, Mimi and Micky are in a enclosure right next to the ostriches together with six other horses

The “Wild 23” are now the “Wild 21”.

“Bacon” the Warthog got killed.

Eland “Moose” wanders together with its herd through Gamearea and still visits Volunteers-village from time to time.

Eland “Moose” in the village

Closing words: If you want to work at a wildlife rescue station / sanctuary in Africa, you should question your motifs. Do you want to WORK with animals and get experiences with ANIMALS? Do you want to help the animals? OR do you just want to leave home, party and make as many spectacular selfies as possible? If you belong to the second group, please stay away from the volunteers work in Africa. You should instead book a nice party vacation on some Spanish island…

Supplement beginning of 2019: I have been told that in recent years a lot has changed there – and that supposedly not for the better. I hereby expressly point out that I do not want to advertise this sanctuary. In addition, I repeatedly advise that anyone who wants to participate in such a volunteer project should be informed in advance exactly. Just because a sanctuary did a good job years ago does not mean that it still does it today. It always depends on the leadership of each organization. Inform yourself always up-to-date and from several sources!

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The war fare over the last rhinos and my battle with the English language

It’s 6.30 am. It’s a pleasant morning. It’s about 23 degree, the sun is still low on the horizon and has not yet wholly touched the valley through which I’m walking right now.

The day will become a hot one, just like the day before; and the day before that; and that day before that day; and all the other days before when the temperature had already reached 33 degrees at 11 o’clock in the morning. What makes the physical work even more strenuous is the high air humidity.
The hills surrounding me are overgrown; here and there some brown-red rocks are sticking out of the lush green. The air is still fresh from the night and filled with the song of the birds which is accompanied by the buzzing of the bugs.

I’m up since 5.30am; the clearly hearable roaring of a lion nearby came through the open door and windows and kept me from prolonging my nocturnal rest.
My shelter is a cottage with numerous holes which are surrounded by thin wood. It’s on a slope which is overgrown in lush green (like everything else around it). I feel like being in a true natural paradise with all the marula and mango trees around me.

My shelter is about 10 square meters big, including a bathroom with no mirror, and I share it with my three roommates. In the first two weeks, those were three girls from all over the world (Sweden, South Africa and USA). After about two weeks, I moved to another cabin with the “older ones” because the young American girl really started to annoy me.

Our daily schedule is quite busy. Besides watching the behavior of the animals, feeding them and cleaning out their dung, we have varying additional tasks like removing cut down mango trees. What make the physical work extra stressful are the saucer-sized spiders which tend to pop up from time to time. In my four week stay I only saw three snakes, but several scorpions reminded me of always looking under your cushion BEFORE sitting down.  More frequent visitors are millepedes, baboonspiders and other huge insects. You’ll get used to it…

The first week was a tough one: high temperatures, the cultural shock and especially the language were major challenges for me. I’m the only German in our group of volunteers. Most of the others 8 to 16 volunteers come from the USA, UK or Australia and are therefore native speakers, all of them with a different dialect (South African, South Australian, Israeli, US West Coast, American Midwest, Oxford, Scandinavian, West Australia, Irish… ). It was quite a challenge for me and my average English skills to understand them. It became easier from week to week. Looking back, I think it was the best thing which could have happened to me.

At this point, one question comes up: Why did all these people, who come from all over the world, come to this place? A place were the water taps sometimes pour out red-brownish water, the electricity comes and goes and ticks and mosquitoes can infect you all kinds of diseases. What made the people travel there? These people are students, business managers, housewives, prospective vets, lawyers and former soldiers of all possible nations. All of them want to contribute to save a species which are close to being wiped out: the rhino .The rhino and all its subspecies are close to being erased from the face of our earth, although being part of it for over 50 million years. The question is: why?

The answer is as easy as it is sad: Rhino – Wars

The price for the horn of a rhino even tops its equivalent in grams of cocaine, gold or diamonds. Just because of the foolish Far Eastern misbelieve that it could enhance the male potency; it’s also a symbol of power in China. That made the poaching so lucrative that those poachers are equipped with night vision goggles and state-of-the-art fully automatic rifles with silencers. Those made the patrolling helicopter pilots wear bulletproof vests while flying over the area as several pilots have been shot from the ground by poachers.

What are the poachers actually doing?
The rhinos are killed or at least wounded in order to hack or saw off the horn from their face. If it’s a mother with its calf, the calf will be ignored because of not having a horn yet. If it’s trying to help its mother, the poachers will chase away the calf with their machetes or rifles.
In our rescue centre for rhino orphans we have several calves with scars on their head due to machete attacks. One has a gunshot wound as big as a fist in the shoulder; thanks to a proper treatment it healed quite well.
As soon as the poachers take off with their horn, they leave the hurt calf behind. The smell of the wound naturally lures predators. Without the prompt help of rangers, soldiers or others patrolling nearby, the baby rhino has a tough time ahead.

The poachers stop at nothing to complete their cruel mission. That’s why the 46.000 hectare area is specially secured with the rescue center in it: several fences, guards on foot, guards with Belgian Shepherds and mounted patrols.
And right in the middle of it, right in the eye of the storm: a small number of volunteers from all over the world who, together with some skilled personnel, are trying to look after orphan rhino babies and other animals.

What a place – what a time