The Children in the Wilderness
is an environmental and life skills educational programme that focuses
on the next generation of rural decision makers. Children in the
Wilderness hosts rural children from all over Southern Africa that live
alongside Parks and Reserves and teaches them the importance of
conservation.
As part of this programme Namibian children are invited to the Kuala Wilderness Camp (which
is just down the road from the NCCC) for an educational camping
experience. Kate went to Kuala to give a presentation to one group of
children and demonstrated how radio telemetry works by asking the
children to find hidden radio collars. The children really enjoyed the
experience but for the next time we thought it would be a much more
exciting experience for them if when they find the collars there was a
cheetah attached to it! So the next group made the short journey here to
the NCCC.
It
was quite a sight seeing 6 mini-buses arriving at the Guest Farm with
around 50 children and supervisors piling out. But I have to say the
Children in the Wilderness supervisors did a fantastic job of sorting
the children into their groups and they were extremely well behaved.
After a quick introduction we immediately loaded the children onto the
cars and took them to track the cheetahs. Upon entering the camp Kate
and I took a group each with Kate heading off in the direction of Annie
and Betty and my group in search of Pepper.
The
children were very keen and a couple knew a lot of the questions I
asked them about cheetahs. Each had a turn using the radio-telemetry
equipment, and when we found Pepper sitting beautifully in the grass you
could see the excitement in their faces.
On
the way to find Annie and Betty we stopped on a road and I showed the
group good examples of cheetah spoor and demonstrated how you can tell
the difference between a left and right, front and back and how we can
use that information to ID individuals and estimate their numbers.
When we approached the area Annie and Betty were in we could see Kate’s group were still in the area, when we passed them we learned that Spartacus was also in the area. Kate didn’t tell us exactly where the cats were so it was up to the children to lead the way. First we found Annie and Betty who seemed a little confused by the appearance of yet more brightly colored little people.
Spartacus’
signal was very close and as we walked of in his direction the children
had an experience they will probably never forget as Spartacus jumped
out of his bush and gave his very impressively display of intimidation
with hisses and spits. Despite explaining to the group at the start that
this was to be expected and we had nothing to fear, the sight of a mean
looking 60kg Spartacus still gave them a bit of a shock! Spartacus as
he always does then just sat back down and fell a sleep. He’s just a big
softie really :)
When we approached the area Annie and Betty were in we could see Kate’s group were still in the area, when we passed them we learned that Spartacus was also in the area. Kate didn’t tell us exactly where the cats were so it was up to the children to lead the way. First we found Annie and Betty who seemed a little confused by the appearance of yet more brightly colored little people.
Spartacus’
signal was very close and as we walked of in his direction the children
had an experience they will probably never forget as Spartacus jumped
out of his bush and gave his very impressively display of intimidation
with hisses and spits. Despite explaining to the group at the start that
this was to be expected and we had nothing to fear, the sight of a mean
looking 60kg Spartacus still gave them a bit of a shock! Spartacus as
he always does then just sat back down and fell a sleep. He’s just a big
softie really :)
Upon
returning to the Guest Farm the children had lunch and Kate then did a
quick presentation about the NCCC and the research we are doing. At the
end Kate and I were treated to a thank you ‘chant’ from the children and
they were soon on their way back to Kuala.
It
was a hugely enjoyable morning and the children really seemed to have
enjoyed themselves, we hope they learned a little as well. We very much
look forward to welcoming more Children in the Wilderness in the future
:)
Photos by Mirjam Frey
Photos by Mirjam Frey
