Monday was the first "real" day of the program. We didn't do much academic wise, we just covered some basic South African history and culture, but it was still really interesting. The more exciting part of the day was the game drive we took for a few hours at Kragga Kamma.
It was absolutely incredible. When we got there, we first went to see the cheetahs, which were in enclosures instead of roaming through most of the game park. We were only there for a few minutes before we piled into the trucks and started the drive. The park didn't have any elephants or lions, but they did have rhinos, zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, and bonteboks, which are a kind of antelope that is very specific to Southern Africa. If I'm not mistaken, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History actually has a stuffed bontebok on display in the African mammals section.
We weren't able to get extremely close to many of the animals, but that honestly didn't matter. Just being able to see these creatures living the way that they're intended to was amazing. It's such a different experience to seeing animals in zoos, because you're right there in the middle of it. And the people at the park interfere as little as possible with the animals so that they can live as naturally as possible. I think that the only things that they do are supply meat to the carnivores and omnivores (if they have any) and de-horn the rhinos to prevent poaching.
Since I didn't get any photos or video of it, I thought I'd share these two stories about somethings that happened on the drive. We stopped in an area where there weren't any animals, and the guide got out and picked up some small animal scat (Scat=poop. This stuff was from giraffes and bontebok, I think, and it was almost completely grass). Apparently, people often make a game out of seeing who can spit the pieces of scat the farthest. Seriously. So of course, half of the group decided to compete against each other. I did not participate, and I don't regret that choice at all.
The second story is about the rhinos. They have five rhinos at the park, three females and two females. Our car actually got held up a bit by the oldest female, because she just had a rhino calf about 4 months ago. She was afraid that the cars were getting too close to her and her calf, Chuckie. We got through fine, of course, but it was interesting to learn how protective the mother could be and also that rhino calfs stay with their mothers for the first 3-4 years of their lives. You really do learn something new every day.
It was absolutely incredible. When we got there, we first went to see the cheetahs, which were in enclosures instead of roaming through most of the game park. We were only there for a few minutes before we piled into the trucks and started the drive. The park didn't have any elephants or lions, but they did have rhinos, zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, and bonteboks, which are a kind of antelope that is very specific to Southern Africa. If I'm not mistaken, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History actually has a stuffed bontebok on display in the African mammals section.
We weren't able to get extremely close to many of the animals, but that honestly didn't matter. Just being able to see these creatures living the way that they're intended to was amazing. It's such a different experience to seeing animals in zoos, because you're right there in the middle of it. And the people at the park interfere as little as possible with the animals so that they can live as naturally as possible. I think that the only things that they do are supply meat to the carnivores and omnivores (if they have any) and de-horn the rhinos to prevent poaching.
Since I didn't get any photos or video of it, I thought I'd share these two stories about somethings that happened on the drive. We stopped in an area where there weren't any animals, and the guide got out and picked up some small animal scat (Scat=poop. This stuff was from giraffes and bontebok, I think, and it was almost completely grass). Apparently, people often make a game out of seeing who can spit the pieces of scat the farthest. Seriously. So of course, half of the group decided to compete against each other. I did not participate, and I don't regret that choice at all.
The second story is about the rhinos. They have five rhinos at the park, three females and two females. Our car actually got held up a bit by the oldest female, because she just had a rhino calf about 4 months ago. She was afraid that the cars were getting too close to her and her calf, Chuckie. We got through fine, of course, but it was interesting to learn how protective the mother could be and also that rhino calfs stay with their mothers for the first 3-4 years of their lives. You really do learn something new every day.