Eat or Be Eaten

Yesterday we fed the cheetahs! It was so much fun. First, we had to add in their supplements and some kibble to the meat to make sure they get a balanced diet. Then we each got turns doing the three different kinds of feedings they do depending on the cheetah. Some cheetahs get their piece of meat tossed over the fence, some get it put through a special door in their enclosure and others sit for their food and you put the bowl down in front of them. One of the cheetahs got hit in the face with his breakfast when he was trying to catch it (he isn't totally used to getting his food thrown to him yet) and when one of the girls in my group was tossing some meat over a fence it got stuck on the top and when they tried to get it down it fell on her head (which was really funny), luckily she was wearing a hat. That afternoon after a lecture about genetics and a vet talk some of us tried acupuncture which was really cool. For dinner, we all went over to one of the volunteer houses and made our own stirfry over coals. I don't have a ton of pictures from feeding but here are a few!

Emily the African Wild Cat




 This morning we fixed up some cheetah houses by attaching insulation and roofing to the outside of them. This afternoon after lunch we got to meet the cheetah cub Galaxy! She was super cute and super playful. After a lecture about conservation we finished up our enrichment for the jackals. We put some hard boiled eggs and peanut butter on top of the structure we made and put that in their enclosure and the other girls filled their paper mache balls with fruit & veggies and hung them on trees. When we left they hadn't been up on their platform yet. They knew there was food up there and just hadn't quite figured out how to get up there. After dinner, we had a game night which was really fun.




Updated house
Sam helping us update his house
Galaxy 
Valen was very interested in the platform




Comments

  1. UnknownJune 28, 2017 at 3:56 PM

    Thanks for the update! Bummer about technology gliche-but we'll see the pictures eventually :)
    XO Mom

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJuly 10, 2017 at 8:28 PM

    GALAXY = O. M. G. cuteness!!!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rain and Flowers

Image
Today we started off by visiting the local weekend market in Christchurch. This market was huge and has pretty much anything you could want. A bunch of us got mini donuts for breakfast and they were amazing! After wandering for a while it started to rain and we seeker shelter under an unoccupied tent and watched the people who walked by. We also purchased souvenirs and got more tea! While waiting for it to be time to head into the city we sat on a field and listend to live music. Once we headed into the city we went to the Canterbury museum and botanical garden, which is one of the top ten gardens in the world. It was so beautiful and we took so many amazing pictures. There was a pretty cool street art exhibit at the museum too. For lunch we went to the boat docks and had toasties on the river. For those who don't know, a toastie is basically a grilled cheese and you can add other things. Then we headed back to the garden to continue our picture contest and wander on the trails. On
Read more

Livestock Auction & International Antarctic Center

Image
On Tuesday we went on two trips, a livestock auction and the International Antarctic Center. We went to the auction first which was actually pretty cool. One of the men working the auction talked to us about how it all works, how the animals are sorted and things like that. There were so many sheep and we did get to see them being auctioned off but that wasn't as exciting as the cattle auctioning. The sheep auctions were just done with the sheep in their pens and the caller standing on a platform just over the pen with the buyers in front of the pen and then they would walk over a few steps to the next pen and contine as such. For the cattle auctions which ever cattle (or set of cattle) were being auctioned came out into a ring and the bidders were sitting in auditorium style seats looking down at the cattle. While the cattle were in the ring therewas a man in there to make sure they went in and out. Once the bidding was done the cattle left through one gate and it started all over
Read more

Days One and Two

Image
After a long one and a half days of travel all most of us wanted to do was sleep but it was barely noon here so we had to stay awake until bed time! The first thing we did was went on a little scenic tour of Christchurch with our bus driver, Robbie, who is the biggest hoot! Then we went to the mall where we all came to realize how expensive simple items such as shampoo and sunscreen are on an island. Then we cam back to the university and had dinner and did a scavenger hunt. Then we all conked out until the next morning. The following day we had our first class which was more of a spew of information about what was coming up and showing us where the computer lab is. After lunch we all went into town to go to the bank and have a look around. When we came back we all went out onto the rugby field and proceeded to play soccer, nap, read books and get sunburned. We have all now realized how very important sunscreen is here. After dinner we all went to the local pub and had (for most of us
Read more