The sunrise was pretty impressive over the bush:
The animals were out early this morning, we found the herd of buffalo as well as plenty more zebras and antelope.
We saw a couple giraffe, including 2 males fighting by swinging their necks at each other. Seems like a hazardous way to establish who is the alpha male!
After breakfast we went to the Kwa Cheetah breeding project. The project rescues abandoned cheetah cubs and breeds the cats that live there. According to our tour, there are only an estimated 7,500 cheetahs alive in the world, including all of the zoos worldwide and the wild poulation. The cheetahs are in danger from their natural predators (mostly lion & hyena) as well as injury by grazing animals, being shot by farmers, and being poached for their skin or to sell as pets around the world. This project has 13 cubs born in captivity that they are in the process of raising & training to hunt so they can be released. They let us pet 2 of the cubs and several of the adults. They were surprisingly tame, very cute, and rather large.
We came back to the lodge for lunch (we are eating a lot here) and then headed out for another safari drive. Our driver, Ruan, really wanted to find the white rhinos for us although the last few days his groups hadn't had any luck. We thought we would be similarly disappointed, but just before sunset found 1 male and 3 females playing around by a small pond. They are huge. The ones at the park have had their horns shortened to make them less appealing to poachers. Our guide explained that poaching is a huge problem in the parks. Nambiti employs a full-time person to check on the rhinos daily. He uses the tracking devices and a motorcycle to visualize 40+ animals every day. And sometimes while doing so he is chased by the park's lions.
We will be sad to leave Ndaka, although I think everyone is excited to start the building project on Monday. Thanks for reading! Take care!
-Rachel
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