My Lion Country ExperienceBy Faye Martin VN - Veterinary NurseI  ’ve always wanted to be a vet nurse since I was young and have worked at the Park Veterinary Group for 5 years. Having trained here, I have been qualified for nearly 2 years. I love my job. At home I have a black Labrador.In August 2010 I was lucky enough to be able to volunteer at a reserve called 'Antelope Park' in central Zimbabwe and help with lion conservation work. Here their mission is to contribute to the future population increase in lions throughout Africa, and work alongside ‘ALERT’ (African Lion Environmental Research Trust). I go to Africa most years volunteering in conservation on various projects. I have a big interest in the African wildlife, but hadn’t yet worked with lions. After learning that the population has dropped from 200,000 lions in Africa to just 23,000, I was determined to go and learn more, do my bit for conservation and help.  Every day was packed full of a mixture of hard work and amazing experiences. A typical day would be getting up at 5am to take a pride of lions for a walk. By taking them out on walks, they are introduced to the sights and sounds of the bush and have the opportunity to see game. This encourages natural prey response instincts to develop. It is an amazing experience having lions walking along side you, and accepting you as part of the pride (although you could never let your guard down!).  The camp also had 3 young cubs, and we took it in turns 'cub sitting', which involved bottle feeding and generally playing with them. I did do some work as well! There were enclosures to clean and maintain. We made signs for the enclosures, painted fences, collected data, did snare sweeps (looking for evidence of poachers) and prepared meat for feeding time.Also whilst I was there I had the privilege to help with the work on the release site. This is a 500 acre fenced enclosure, where a pride of lions, when ready, would be released. There will be prey species in the enclosure and the pride’s progress will be closely monitored. They will go on to be released into a semi wild eco system of at least 100,000 acres.  On one day everyone at the park was called to help put out a huge bush fire, which had been burning for 4 days. It had burnt acres of land, and so it was all hands on deck to extinguish it. We were all armed with big branches and spent the day beating the fire with them until we finally succeeded and put it out. A fire engine and fire-fighters turned up half way through, with no water, and joined in with us beating the fire! On Sundays we had a bit of spare time and could visit the local town 'Gweru'. We also spent a few hours at an orphanage. These were children whose parents had died from AIDS. We took them basic supplies, toys and sweets, and played games with them. It was an unforgettable experience.  I was lucky enough to have the amazing opportunity to work alongside Dr Gumbo. He is the park’s local vet. We spent the day darting the lions to take blood samples to test for FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus). We gave them rabies vaccinations and microchipped them for identification. It was great to get involved in some veterinary work. I got the nurse’s job of monitoring their anaesthetics and recoveries. It was very different from the small animals I am used to. It was interesting to see how they do things differently, and to be up close to the lions looking at their paws and teeth whilst they snoozed! I will never forget this experience.  My favourite thing was taking a pride of lions called the 3K's (Kafara, Kenya and Katanga) for their walks. Kafara was the male, Kenya and Katanga the females. I got to take these lions out frequently - they were my favourites. These lions were 16 months old and fairly big. The first time I took them out was a nerve wracking experience, but the more I took them out, the more relaxed I got. I got to know their personalities. Kafara was the lazy male that sat back and watched his sisters doing all the work hunting. Katanga was always the first to spot the prey and start stalking, shortly followed by Kenya, whilst Kafara stayed with us! It was amazing to be there and be part of the pride whilst the lions stalked and chased their prey, and have them come back to you and start playing at your feet.  The most exciting thing was when we took a pride of lions on what’s called a night encounter. These are lions that are older and therefore too dangerous to walk with, so we travelled in vehicles. We took the lions out at night to give them the opportunity to hunt their dinner. We used an infra- red light to follow them, so the prey wouldn’t be scared of our presence and run away. The lions stayed by the truck, roaming through the bush until they got a hunt. It was exciting when they got a chase. We had to stay still and perfectly quiet as we watched the lions stalk their prey. We saw one set of eyes, the lions’, reflecting back at us, slowly stalking, making its way over to a herd of zebra, lots of oblivious eyes reflecting back at us like lights in the dark. When the chase was on the noise of the scared zebras thrashing through the bush and braying was in stark contrast to the silent stealth of the lions stalk. Our vehicle started up and raced after them. Unfortunately they didn’t make a kill this time, but it’s all learning for them and what an experience for me!  The programme is an amazing project. Since I have been back I have had regular updates. The lions were relocated to the release site that I helped to build and are doing extremely well. They have gone on to produce the first litter of cubs, which will be the first set of wild lions released into the wild............ Very rewarding! |
