Time flies...

It’s hard to believe that I’ve now been here at CCF for an entire month. So much has happened but it still doesn’t feel like I’ve been back that long. Time flies when you’re having fun, right? Lots of pictures in this post so just keep scrolling!

last post was a picture of the stars…. this time it’s a picture of the moon

So a couple of weeks ago I was working in the ambassadors’ enclosure just doing basic yard work (cleaning, trimming branches, etc.). I left to get a tool and when I got back waiting for me right where I just had been working was a puff adder. This snake is responsible for killing more people than any other in Africa so I was quite startled to see him there…. literally right were I was just standing a moment earlier. We caught him and then released him on our airstrip where I managed to get a few decent photos (see below). Puff adders are beautiful snakes and I’ve only seen one before, so it was great to get some photos of him. Next on the list… black mamba, boomslang, and spitting cobra!

Recently I’ve been trying out different recipes for ice-cream with milk from CCF’s own dairy goats. We already make cheese and fudge, but because we never get ice-cream here in Namibia I decided to make it myself. It’s not yet perfected but it’s coming along and hopefully sometime soon we will have a great recipe for ice-cream that we can sell to the public. CCF now has around 50 dairy goats (as opposed to the 7 or so last summer) and therefore we have a lot of milk to use everyday.

one of CCF’s dairy goats

one of the many dairy goat kids

Back in April during annuals (full medical check ups on all the cheetahs here at CCF done yearly), our vet team removed a mast cell tumor from one of the ambassador cheetahs Tiger Lily. Unfortunately, the tumor returned within a month and last Wednesday we had to remove it again. The surgery went very well and there were no complications. Our vet Gaby and her team did a fantastic job at removing the tumor and all we can do now is hope that it doesn’t come back. After surgery Stephanie (one of the ambassador’s handlers) and I spent all day ensuring that Tiger recovered fully. She was up in 20 minutes after being injected with the reversal but was still very drugged up so we were there to just ensure that she didn’t hurt herself and incase anything did happen. She made a full recovery and is now doing just fine (pictures below).

taking blood samples

the mast cell tumor on Tiger’s right foreleg compared to a scalpel

we thought she would most like a pink bandage with hearts haha… she hasn’t torn it off yet so I guess we were right

Tiger in recovery after surgery

That’s it for now. I’ll try and post another up date within the next week or two but no guarantees. Below are some pictures of the ambassadors that I thought you might enjoy. As always I am open to any comments and happy to answer any questions. CCF has a Facebook page which you can visit by clicking here. This is a great place to stay up to date with what’s going on here at CCF, so I encourage everyone to “like” our page. If you’d like to support the work we do here, please visit our website at www.cheetah.org to find out how you can get involved or donate (every little bit truly makes a difference). Until next time….

- Eli

paw in the face but obviously didn’t seem to mind

no worries…. just a yawn (if you look closely you can see the individual barbs on the tongue)

looks really grumpy here…. but again it was just a yawn

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