The Born Free Foundation (BFF) has been able to get 73 hectares of land about 25 kilometers from Addis Ababa from the Government of Ethiopia to use as a new wildlife center. The perimeter has been staked out and BFF now has trained and uniformed guards patrolling the area while BFF works on installing the perimeter fencing.
This weekend, I got to help James and the vet move Safia to her new home. It’s a temporary enclosure where she’ll live for a few months while the perimeter fencing and a larger permanent enclosure is built.
I arrived at James’ house in the morning and while we waited for the wildlife veterinarian I said hello to his other animals. BFF currently cares for a number of lions in a zoon in Addis, several additional lions and a cheetah currently living at the President’s house, and some animals residing with James. They include a cheetah, an owl, and several tortoises of varying sizes. The cheetah, Menelink, has a few toys that she likes to bring over to you and likes to be pet through the fence. Amazing!!!
Once the vet arrived, she got down to business. First up was darting Safia with anesthesia so that we had better access to her and she could be moved. From upstairs we could hear her growling. I thought it was cute…others found it a bit more intimidating. Once Safia was asleep, we brought her outside, got her weight (27kg), took her temperature, listened to her heartbeat, checked her stool (she has worms), and looked at her front left paw which is at a bit of an angle—though useable. I was also given the honors of cutting off the chain which has been around her neck since she was at the village where I first saw her.
Once the health check was over, we loaded her into a dog crate and headed out to the new site and she was transferred into her new quarters. We waited a while and she slowly started to come out of the anesthesia. If she focused on us close to her (but on the other side of the fence) she would growl. She eventually was able to shuffle herself around a bit and got herself into the corner of the room (she seems to like corners!).
A bit later James put in her dinner and she seemed to perk up a bit. I mean, who wouldn’t get excited at 1.5 kg of raw meat (plus a deworming pill and some calcium powder) in close proximity? Kidding aside, the instinct for meat was really strong. So she shuffled herself over to the meat and ate a bit…but it was like watching a little kid who wants the food but is so tired they can’t stay awake. And she kept up the growling when we moved around so that we wouldn’t get too close to her meat!
After a bit of the meat, her curiosity got the best of her and she drunkenly made her way over to the gate outside. The set up is similar to that of a zoo in the states where there’s the indoor enclosure where she’ll be at night and then a gate that can be opened so she can be outside or inside as she chooses during the day. She needs to be inside at night because there are hyenas, baboons and other animals that might find her—say we say interesting?—and she’s still quite young and can’t really defend herself. Another perimeter fence will be built with barbed wire and that will help as well.
Watching Safia go outside was really cool. It was the first time she’d been in the sunlight or felt wind for months. She tentatively stepped off of the concrete to the dirt and then went back inside. She came back out, took a few more steps off of the concrete and again went back inside. After another 15 minutes or so she managed to walk down to the far corner of the enclosure. By the time we left, she’d walked about halfway back up and had settled in a semi-sunny area to bask.
Needless to say I think she’s quite happy. I’m going to go back out on Friday to say hello and see how she’s getting on in her new home. I’m glad I told James about her, but I’m really glad that BFF has been able to set her up so nicely and so quickly. She really is a bit free now and will have a much better life. I’m going to try to keep supporting BFF and Safia in particular while I’m in Ethiopia. Maybe I should start looking for work in the conservation field???
A big thanks from Safia, James and me to those of you who’ve helped out and supported the costs for keeping her. The ones I know of are Stephen F, Eyerusalem H, Jamie S in Ethiopia (or by way of a staff person in my office) and Michelle S, Johanna O, Stef H and Sarah G in the US. Your contributions are making a HUGE difference!!!
To view the photos, click here.
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| Born Free and Safia |
Abrazos to all,
Jane
To contribute for Safia:
http://bornfree.wildlifedirect.org/category/born-free-ethiopia/
http://www.bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/further-activities/born-free-ethiopia/
(Let me know of your contribution and I'll tell James...you might get a shout out like Michelle S!)
If the link doesn't work, this slideshow will show you the same:
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