Monday, September 29, 2008

Lions, Cheetahs, and Crocs... Oh My!

Over the weekend, Dan (my co-leader) and I took the AMT students on a field trip for the day. Africa definitely has some cool ideas for field trips. We wanted the students to understand more about the wildlife and safety measures to look out for here in the bush. The way to accomplish this... throw them into the lions den. Well in this case, Cheetah and Croc den. However, we did see lions, which was amazing.

Our first stop of the Lion park in Mukuni that has just opened. Our guide took us to the lions, where we got a close up view, but seperated by a chain link fence. We also got to view their newest additions to the park, the Caracal cats. The coolest part was when the team was allowed into the Cheetah cage. There's something intimidating when you step into the home of a potientally vicious animal. However, when they start lick you and purring, it's amazing that they are justa large cat... only with paws, nails, and teeth that can tear you to shreds! Cool and scary at the same time.

We traveled from the lion park and entered the world of crocodiles. We were able to see a feeding, as well as learn about how crocs attack, warning signs, etc. The croc farm also has a cool indigenous snake exhibit where we were able to view many snakes (mostly venomous) that are from the area. Many we have living on our base, some I've even had close encounters with.


It was a great day and the students were able to put their knowledge to use that evening with an encounter with a spitting cobra found outside of our toliets here in the base. Gotta love Africa!

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