September 28, 1998 - De Wildt Cheetah Centre, S. Africa

Early rise this morning for a wonderful breakfast provided by Bob and Gay. Then Alan (Alan Strachan, curator of De Wildt) came to fetch us in the bakkie (truck) and trailer from De Wildt. We loaded all of our luggage into the trailer and rode in the truck, all part of the adventure! We could have hired a kombi, but I wanted to take the money we'd have spent on hiring a transport and give it to De Wildt instead. This also goes for our accommodations tonight. Instead of paying for another hotel or guest house, we were all going to stay at Alan's house (on site) and give that money to De Wildt. However, his daughter just got married last weekend and he has relatives from out of town staying there, so we stayed at friend's nearby. Fran and William Clark and Eurika and Pieter van Heerden. Frannie and Eurika both know my friend Jenni (Dr. Jenni Spencer, Auburn University) from Medunsa and were happy to put us up since it benefited De Wildt.

Upon arrival at De Wildt, they had coffee and tea prepared in the new Visitor's Center. It was under construction last year when I was here and was finished a few months ago. The old visitor area is now a large gift shop and it all looks fantastic. Two sides of the Visitor Center are glass and look out into a large cheetah "camp" (enclosure). Annie was in there, as she was last year when I visited and she was 8 months old. She's a lovely cheetah and she and I bonded last year playing her favorite sport, soccer. I named her after Ann (Ann Van Dyk, Founder of De Wildt), although I don't think they still call her that. Her mother is Gillian and her father is Spooky, a king cheetah (pictured left).

We brought along $1500 U.S. Dollars to donate. Part of that is money we raised for them through merchandise sales of their t-shirts, books, and posters. Part is what we paid them as a group in exchange for not having to hire a kombi for transportation, nor a hotel for tonight. The rest is donation from WAC. $1500 USD = 9000 SAR (S. African Rand) right now, so this pleased them.

Dr. Richard Burroughs was there when we arrived. I met him two years ago and went with him to dehorn a rhino for a farmer that owned several. These farmers are finding it more lucrative to raise rhino, harvest the horn periodically, microchipping it, and stockpiling them; lobbying to legalize rhino horn so that they can liquidate it. Anyway, Richard was preparing to change the dressing on a cheetah with a broken leg. It was a wild cat from Namibia that someone noticed was injured. It was a terrible break and had to be set with a splint and pins several weeks ago. We all got to spectate as he worked. He tranquilized him in a crush cage with a pole syringe and redressed the leg. One interesting thing was that the hairs on the bottom of his foot were shaggy like a woolly mammoth. Since he's got a cast and is not wearing the fur down, in just a few weeks it had grown about 3 inches long. Incredible looking and it covered the pads. Richard trimmed the hair and also the claws, since they too were growing long. It is healing nicely but he will not be able to be returned to the wild. He will never be 100% nor strong enough to hunt successfully enough, so he will join De Wildt's breeding program.

Alan then gave us a tour in their new safari vehicle. We had two tours, each a couple of hours, that covered the entire property and most of the camps (large enclosures). I was happy to see that "Robert Redford", the brown hyena, is still alive. He's getting quite old now. Robert was used in a documentary film, hence the name. However, the ironic thing is that when he vocalizes he has learned to say his name--after it was given to him. Alan takes tours past Robert's camp and when he greets us, he always succeeds in enunciating his name "Robert" perfectly. It makes the hair stand up on the back of your head. This hyena says it so clearly. Alan says that one of these days he half expects Robert to say a full sentence like "Robert wants better food!"

Along the tour, we also got to spend time with Gillian, little Annie Cheetah's mother, their sweet ambassador cat. (pictured with Linda and Laura) She is currently pregnant again and this will be her last litter as she is getting a bit old. Everyone got to have their photos taken with her and video and pet her, even feel her swollen belly for kittens. She purred the whole time and is such a treat. They are hoping that Annie will be as nice as her so that they can continue to have one nice cat for this purpose.

Between the two tours, we had a nice lunch and visited. We also got to spend some time with Annie, and some other cubs they currently have. Four that were four months old, and five that were only two months. The interesting thing about the group of five is that one had no mantle of long fur on its back like the others. We discovered that this was because he was hand raised and the others weren't. Apparently the mantle falls out when taken from the mother. They theorize that the mother's saliva has something in it to retain the mantle fur. I would think it could be something within the mother's milk. Anyway, this little fellow was very funny looking without it, rather like a pencil necked geek, compared to the other bushy cheetah babies.

At the end of the day, we all went to Fran and Eurika's for the night. Fran has a beautiful home that her father built overlooking the lake at Hartebeestpoort. She had a great dinner planned outside in the yard with a great view. Table cloths and settings, something out of Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous. However, the usual lightning and thunder showers moved in and we had to pack it all into the living room under cover. Still and excellent meal with wonderful friends and another lovely day.