Today I pet a baby elephant, fed a giraffe, held a baby Nile crocodile, and had a wild monkey climb on my back! I took part in a city tour, which included stops at the Giraffe Centre, Elephant Orphanage, Mamba Village – a crocodile farm – and a monkey park.
First was the Giraffe Centre. Here, giraffes are kept and protected, as they can be killed for eating farmers’ crops. Giraffes are also bred here, and then released into the wild at an appropriate age. However, they mainly serve as a tourist attraction! It was a little strange, seeing all of the people there merely as tourists , dressed really nicely. All of the volunteers dress more for comfort and in clothes that they are planning on getting dirty. Here, I got to feed and pet a “wild” giraffe, which was amazing! Their tongues are blue and around a foot long, so they grab food using that instead of using their lips. This large tongue then transfers food from the front of their mouth to the back, where their teeth are located. To feed them, then, I placed the giraffe kibble directly on their tongues!
Next was the Elephant Orphanage. Here, keepers find baby elephants orphaned in the wild and work to rehabilitate them in the hope of once again releasing them into the wild. They keep the elephants up until age 5, when they then attempt to reintroduce them. To do so, they have to be accepted by a group of wild elephants, which they will then remain with for life. Since the baby elephants can only drink baby formula as a substitute for elephant milk, they have to be fed by the keepers until they are old enough to sustain themselves on herbaceous growth alone. At the elephant orphanage, the public can come and see the baby elephants being fed for only 1 hour per day, from 11 am to 12 pm. The elephants are herded into a special area where they are fed and have the opportunity to wallow and roll around in various mud holes. The elephants move around at will, and those that come close to the rope fence separating them from the observers can be petted. Luckily, one came close to me, and I was able to do so!
From there, we went to Mamba Village. This is a crocodile farm and amusement park, where one can view Nile crocodiles of various ages, as well as tortoises and camels. One of the employees actually jumps into the crocodile pens to make them move around and leap out of the water! It’s amazing how fast they can do so. They also swim underneath the water completely without moving it – the method by which they leap up and latch their jaws onto their prey before dragging it underwater. I was able to hold a baby crocodile as well! Their tail is extremely muscular, and therefore one has to hold it very tightly to keep them from swinging it around. If this happens, they can not only wriggle free, but turn their body and bite whoever is holding them. You also have to hold the crocodile’s head, clamping their jaw shut, for obvious reasons! At Mamba, I also got to hold a Leopard Tortoise. It was much heavier than I thought – 25 pounds! And this was a small tortoise, only around 15 years old. The other tortoise that was there, munching on a guava, was 50 years old. These tortoises are still young, however – they are able to live up to 200 years old!
Our last stop was a park inhabited my Sykes’ monkeys. Before going into the park, we purchased a few cones of peanuts for feeding them, which we were instructed to hide in our pockets. They were way too sneaky for me though! Both of my tubes of peanuts were stolen within 10 minutes. However, I still had a monkey carrying her baby hop on my shoulder. It was so cool how agile she was, even while carrying her baby around, she was able to jump right up and scamper on down.
