Day 22: Ashia Cheetah Experience

Today we went to Cheetah Experience Ashia. It’s about an hour and a half drive from Simon’s Town through some really beautiful country! And we had to be there before 7 to begin our full day of volunteering, which means we woke up at 4:30! How Brian is hanging in there with me, I don’t know…

Cheetah Experience Ashia is literally a brand new sanctuary. I did some research on it, and it seemed to be a really good one. Their primary goal is increasing and strengthening the genetic diversity of cheetahs through captive breeding programs, with an ultimate goal of being able to release cheetahs back into the wild in protected areas. Did you know that the world cheetah population is at less than 7,000 individuals?! And they are confined to tiny pockets of habitat, with fences blocking their freedom of movement between these pockets. That means that the few cheetahs that are left are forced to interbreed, which weakens the genetic diversity and strength of the species. Game reserves have to do cheetah swaps with each other to get new genes into their cheetah populations to keep them strong. The sanctuary is also heavily involved in education and research. The director of Cheetah Experience Ashia owns Cheetah Experience Bloemfontein, about a 10 hour drive away, and is seriously dedicated to these animals! So that’s the background- now, let’s get to our adventure!

The sanctuary is also a working farm. There are vineyards (they send their grapes out to be made into their own private label wine), olive trees (they send their olives out to be pressed into their own private label olive oil), and guava trees (they sell those to a juice company). It’s a spectacular piece of land! As we pulled into the driveway, a cheetah came running out to greet us, and followed his fence along the driveway with our car. As we walked back to the volunteer house, he walked along the fenceline with us. So cool!! Our first job was to go grab bowls of prepared raw meats and head back to the cheetah camps- the HUGE enclosures where the cheetahs are. I got to feed Xena by walking into her enclosure and setting her bowl down on her feeding platform. Xena was supposed to be a breeder, but she decided she wasn’t really that into mating (we’ve all been there!), so she now stays alone in a huge enclosure. In the wild, female cheetahs live alone. Brian fed Abby. Abby was also in the breeding program. She was into mating (we’ve all been there!), and got pregnant with 5 cubs! However, when it was time to give birth, the first cub got stuck- requiring Abby to have an emergency C-section. Fortunately, all of the cubs were saved and Abby as well. However, due to these complications she was removed from the breeding program and lives alone in her huge enclosure.

Next up was clean up duty. I have never in my life been to ANY animal facility as clean and regimented as this one, and having been in the pet industry for 25 years, I pay attention to these things. There were some long term volunteers there as well. They started scrubbing down the feeding platforms, sleeping platforms, and water troughs. Brian was put on poop patrol with one of the long term volunteers, and I followed him. Apparently not only do I possess ostrich eye and tortoise eye, but cheetah poop eye as well. Life skills. Resume builders. 🙂 First we went into the camp with the “A cubs”- Alpha, Ava, and Anya. Alpha is the biggest cheetah at the sanctuary, and he’s intimidating looking as hell. These aren’t lions or tigers, but they’re still big. And they may be the weakest of the big predators, but they are still predators. With big teeth. And there’s not just one in this camp to keep an eye on, but three. We’re walking the huge camp, looking for poop, when Alpha decides to come and check us out. And by check us out, I mean he took on this kind of stalker stance and was looking straight at us. IN-TIM-I-DATING. Especially when the workers who were outside the camp were saying, “Be still.” UM, WHY?! Eek. He didn’t approach us, but in that moment my healthy respect for these animals got even healthier. I was ready to get out of that camp, as I didn’t feel very comfortable. Brian, aka Dr. Doolittle, was fine. Then we poop patrolled Abby’s camp. She just sat on her hill watching us. Next was Jesse and Pepsi’s camp. They’re both females, but grew up together so still live together. Jesse is the mother of Abby, and also Libby and Zeus (who we’ll meet later). Pepsi had labor complications with her first litter (the cub was saved), but she’s since been removed from the breeding program because of this. Next we cleaned Xena’s camp. And that left just one camp- Liberty (nicknamed Libby). Libby is a unique cat. By the time she was 7 weeks old, she was still very tiny and wasn’t gaining any weight. The vet found that she had been born with a cleft palette, and was shocked she had survived this long, because with that abnormality she wasn’t able to create a strong enough suction to nurse properly. She’s now almost 2 years old and has had 4 surgeries. The vet has done all they can do, and there is still a small hole in the roof of her mouth. She has to be fed bite sized pieces of boneless meat to prevent the food from entering her nasal cavity. She also has a special dining table that allows her to eat with her head completely up, further preventing food from going the wrong way. After all of the sedations and operations, performed by men, she doesn’t like men anymore (we’ve all been there!). So we didn’t go into her camp. Let me tell you something about poop patrol. First, cheetahs don’t bury their poop like a house cat. It’s just out on the ground. And some of them prefer to poop in high places. And as a testament to how clean this place is, there was practically no poop at all to be found. These camps are cleaned methodically every day. It really left me with a good feeling about this place, and that the care of the animals is priority number one. In fact, they don’t even allow children under 1.5 meters tall to see the cats. Small potential prey items children agitate the cats. Would they make more money by letting families in? Yep. But it’s not in the cat’s best interest.

What do you do after breakfast? Wash the dishes!! Again, everything is meticulously cleaned with anti-bacterial soap. The sink was in the room with the freezer where they prepare the food. There was a chart on the wall showing all of the different kinds of meat they feed the cheetahs for variety and nutrition. Each is color coded in the freezer. Chicken, Cow, Eland, Oryx, Rabbit, Sable, Antelope, Zebra, Calf, Donkey, Horse, Ostrich, Rainbow Chicken, Springbok, and Wildebeest.

We were now told it was time to babysit the Servals. There were 3 of them (I can’t remember their names) and they were AWESOME!! No where near as big as a cheetah, so I wasn’t intimidated at all. They were just like big old housecats, and they LOVED to hang out and play in the tall grass. We hung out with them by ourselves for about an hour, interacting with them and keeping them entertained. Honestly, we thought it was more of a “Let the servals babysit the day volunteers so we can get some work done” kind of thing! But it was really cool either way! 🙂

We had now met all of the cats at the sanctuary except for three. First up was Zeus. He was the cheetah that originally greeted us when we drove in. Much smaller than the adults in the back camps, but still plenty big! Zeus has a much shorter tail than he should, so his genetics won’t allow him to be in the breeding program. He’s also very dark colored- much darker than the rest of the cheetahs, and his eyes are very dark orangy/brown. He’s only 10 months old- a kitten. And what do we know about kittens? They like to play. Zeus normally doesn’t like men, and Brian was warned that he probably wouldn’t approach him. Of course, Zeus heads straight for Brian for a pet. Then, he comes around to me, goes behind me, and jumps up on me! I FROZE!!!! That was a little too much for me, so I was thankful when the cheetah next door, Noah, had grabbed my backpack and we had to go wrestle it away from him! Noah is 5 months old, smaller than Zeus, but all kitten!! The long term volunteer got my backpack away (not a hole or scratch on it- a testament to my awesome pack!!). Then, we played with Noah. Noah decided my ankles were a chew toy and went straight for them. At this point, I was pretty sure these kittens had sensed my fear and were taking full advantage of it! They did the same things a house cat would do- chew on you. Except my entire ankle would fit in this cat’s mouth! Unnerving… We met another cat in Noah’s camp (which surrounds the home of the director). This is the oldest cat here, and the cat that started it all. Her name is Fiela and she’s 12 years old. She’s never had cubs of her own, but has a serious maternal instinct with Noah, so they live together. We (Brian) played with Noah for a while. Brian is so damn at ease around every animal. I swear.

Because Brian’s cheetah volunteering was basically turning into exactly what he does at home (cleaning poop, washing dishes), he was now recruited to go help build A-frame shade barriers in Xena’s camp.

While he did that (I do NOT do manual labor, much less pay to do it, thank you very much!), I went on a tour with about 8 tourists. Lize-Marie (super passionate about cheetahs and a permanent employee there), led the tour, and she’s just GREAT! I learned a lot about the animals- some that I did know, but a bunch that I didn’t.
1. Cheetahs are the fastest land animal- but they can only maintain their speed of 110kph (70 mph) for about 30 seconds. It takes them about 3 seconds from stop to full tilt!
2. Their front claws aren’t very sharp. They’re for traction when running. Only the dew claw (back claw) is sharp, and they use it to slice the legs of antelope. This means they can’t climb trees like leopards.
3. Cheetahs use their tails as a rudder when they are running- that’s why it’s so long. It allows them to change direction in an instant.
4. Of the big cats, cheetahs are the weakest predator. Other predators like lions, leopards, and hyenas often steal their catches. When only about 1/2 of their chases result in a kill, that can be a big problem, and lead to starvation of adult cheetahs (and the cubs that are depending on mom to hunt for them).
5. Cheetah cub mortality is about 90% (!!) in the wild. Another reason populations are declining so quickly. They just don’t reproduce quickly enough to sustain the current pressures. Part of the reason for high mortality is predation. The other part is weak genetics- again due to inbreeding from living in such small areas together.
6. Cheetahs hunt during the day (leopards at night). Those dark lines under their eyes are to help them see better in the sunlight.
7. They don’t roar. They purr. Really loud! 🙂

I learned a bunch more, but those are some of the cooler things. When the tour was over and Brian was done building, it was time for lunch. It was provided with our package, and was lamb, a variety of roasted veggies, and some of that African peppermint dessert like I had for Christmas. After that, Lize Marie asked if we wanted to go sit with the big cats with her. She’s a wealth of knowledge and super passionate, so I was in! We went and sat with Xena on her shady platform. Just hung out talking while this huge cat laid there and purred. Her coat was just so beautiful… Lize Marie told us about how she decided she wanted to work with cheetahs and worked hard to make her dream come true! Her love and respect for them is so apparent, and I’m really drawn to that. She’s really excited that they’ve finally found proper predator-free land for them to start reintroducing some cheetahs into the wild soon. None of the cats currently at the sanctuary will be released- they are too habituated to humans. But probably some of these cats grandchildren will be wild. Amazing. After Xena, we went to visit Abby. Same thing, just hung out talking on her platform, while she purred away.

An hour passed really quickly and it was time to head back to the main house. First, we were going to hang with Noah again. Honestly, I’m more comfortable with the adults. They’re more predictable. These big kittens were just a little too playful for me! We sat with Noah for a long time, and he basically ignored us. Typical cat behavior! Then, all of a sudden, he walks over and just gets in my lap! I was a little shocked, but he behaved himself. Then, he went over to Brian and jumped down on the ground. That’s when he promptly went after my ankles again! Oy, that little bugger!!

Then we went back into Zeus’ cage (the one who had jumped on me before). He really makes me nervous, because he’s bigger than Noah. We went and sat down in the grass with him and two of the other long term people. Remember, Zeus is the cat that doesn’t like men. In fact, it took one male volunteer FOUR WEEKS to be able to get in the enclosure with him, and Chris (the volunteer that we poop scooped with) still can’t go in. I think he’s been there a week or two. Well, Zeus walks right over to Dr. Doolittle Brian, lays down, and proceeds to lick him for about 2 minutes straight. Brian said it was like really rough sandpaper, and if his hands weren’t so tough it would have hurt! That damn cat just laid there letting Brian pet it like they were best friends! If Chris saw, I bet he would have been jealous! 🙂 I don’t like the looks Zeus gives me. And after he got up and started walking around, he gave me one of those looks. He promptly walked around behind me and gave me a nip on my shoulder blade. It kinda hurt- not like I’m going to die from it or anything, and frankly I’ve gotten worse from my cat at home. But something about big huge cheetah teeth behind you….shudder. I was ready to get the heck out of Zeus’ enclosure. Brian would have lived there.

All in all, we had a great day at Cheetah Experience Ashia! The grounds were gorgeous, the facility was state of the art, the animals were so well taken care of, the mission was admirable, the people were really nice, and the experience of being able to interact with these cats was just amazing!