Painted Dog Conservation | Dought Nkomo's Diary

Dought Nkomo's Diary

28/04/16
Depart at 6:30 am from Zimbabwe in the company of Jealous Mpofu and driven to Victoria Falls airport by David Kuvawoga.We flew on South African Airways from Zimbabwe to UK via South Africa and arrived at 6 in the morning the following day.

29/04/16
Arrive at Heathrow Airport. Welcomed by Derek, then he drove me to his house for a brief break. Meet Sarah, then drove to South Yorkshire, Doncaster. Arrived at the Mount Pleasant cottage at 4pm and this was going to be my home for 2 weeks.

30/04/16
Drive with Derek to Yorkshire Wildlife Park at 9am where we meet Simon Marsh. Introduced to the staff at the Park and taken on a facility tour.

Handed the Risk assessment and protocols to read and sign. These outlined the expectations one has to display when in their uniform, health and safety, hazard control measures, feeding of animals and servicing enclosures. Each animal area had its own risk assessment and protocols.

Went to the Painted Dog keeper area where there was a talk to the visitors by Rihanna and she gave me the opportunity to talk about our Dogs in the wild. Set up a camera trap with Simon. Evening briefing

01/05/16 Time to work
My first assignment was with Rihanna and we were cleaning the Polar Bear yards, this involved collecting all the faeces, bones and left over food from the yards. This had to be sorted in colour coded buckets red for faeces and black for food.

The straw (grass) bedding has to be checked and redone or replaced if wet. This had to be done quickly before the gates are opened for the public to come in.

Next stop was with Adam Spencer at the Armour leopards to clean the enclosures. I then did repairs in the Meerkat area securing the PVC sheeting they were pulling to create an escape route.

Made enrichment for the Amour tigers with Julie, these were hessian sacks filled with straw and some scent sprayed on them. I had to throw these across a high fence making sure they don’t land on the electric fence.

Taken on a tour of the facilities still under construction by Rick. Moving around presentations was because after cleaning then the staff had a station to man for 4 hours doing talks if there are any visitors interested.
Evening briefing
Morning briefing
Clean the Lion cages with Adam Spencer.
Clean the Amour Tiger cages with Becky.
Clean and grease the gate at the Polar bears with Adam 1.
Cut browse from the wetlands near YWP for the giraffe with Britt and Nathan
Clean giraffe yard, feed them and collect Lucerne. Was briefed on a poisonous weed to avoid by Nathan
Later cleaned the Armour Leopards enclosures with Adam Spencer, learnt that about 70 left in the wild.
Evening briefing

Gallery (diary continues below)

03/05/16
As usual daily briefing at 8:30am then went to the Armour tigers to do yard cleaning and enclosure cleaning. There are about 500 living in the wild. All the adult tigers came from different zoos and the cubs were born here at Yorkshire wildlife Park.

10:30am - Education, saw them conduct lessons on adaptations and habitats with he 4-6 year olds. The lessons were great and the kids were involved throughout. I liked the YWP’s interactive screen as it makes understanding in a classroom simpler. Observed Jade and Natalie teaching. They had live animals and other sample materials such as spoor prints and photographs.

When it was talk time I then moved to the giraffe house where I went with Nathan and Britt to collect browse for the giraffes. We collected Willow and I asked if we were not causing deforestation since the area was small and they told me the area will regrow quickly.

Evening brief, home and dinner

04/05/16
Morning brief
Visit Woburn with Rick and Kim. This is a drive through park with a good collection of animals. The idea is to give the impression of a game drive in the wild but only with plains game and the big or dangerous game is in enclosures. Got complimentary tickets and lunch. There was an area for the domesticated livestock such as goats, sheep and chickens.

PM-back at YWP and did food preparations
6pm evening brief as usual
Back to my cottage and prepare my dinner

05/05/16
Morning brief, Polar bears with Kim
Mongoose window cleaning with Rihanna
Painted dogs enclosures with Rihanna and Kim
Giraffe yard weeding with Lucy (on work placement) and Lauren.
Lion enclosures with Rihanna
Evening brief, home and dinner

06/05/16
Maintenance department - Met Steve the manager and was handed over to Jon. Spent the whole day with Jon repairing benches in the park. Learnt that before one can do work he/she has to go through training and this includes driving cars, carts or even climbing ladders.
Evening brief, home and dinner

07/05/16
Morning brief
Prepare food for Lemurs, baboons and other animals with Dan and this took us 2 hours

Cleaned Wallaby yard with Amy and Colin
Cleaned Squirrel monkey yard with Dan and Gemma
Fed the baboons and learnt about their fear of mostly the senior staff that do darting or vaccine administration. They will not come in if these individuals are within the house.
Evening brief, home and dinner.

08/05/16
Morning brief
Cleaned the baboon house and fed them. Was with Karl and they did not come in because they do not like him.
Lemurs with Dan learnt that all the lemurs here are left handed except for Casper.
Cleaned the Lemur house
Cleaned at the Anteater house and fed them with Gemma
Fed birds with Sarah
Helped Sarah and Gemma at the Squirrel monkey yard where there was a talk to visitors. This was after a surprise attack on a visitor. Food or Drinks are NOT allowed in here but visitors bring them and these monkeys will not ask for them but attack to get them.
Gave food to the giant otters, was with Sarah.
PM briefing

09/05/16
Morning brief
Polar bears with Adam P
Went to buy my groceries with Kim.
Cutting browse with hoof stock team, tie browse to the fence and one of the giraffes Jambo seemed to like the ones I was just putting up and he got too close for my comfort.
Fed the Camel and Zebras with Nathan
Fed the other animals living in a private enclosure and that is 1Donkey, 1Pony, 1 Llama, 2 goats and a Limousine cow.
PM briefing

10/05/16
AM briefing
Cleaned tigers with Adam S
Went with Garvin to Askham Wildlife College to look at some of his fencing and enclosure construction jobs. This was after there was no work for him to show me at YWP due a stoppage when a collapse of a wall under construction was noticed.
Meat preparation
Observe Tiger training by Kim and Julie
PM briefing

11/05/16
AM briefing
Visit Flamingo Land with Britt and Kyrie
Saw Black and White Rhino
Watched the bird show and heard the Parrot talking.
Met Peter (Sarah’s partner) who wants to come and volunteer at PDC
Enjoyed seeing different landscapes and the solar/wind farms. Flamingo Land has a zoo and Amusement Park.
PM briefing

12/05/16
Morning brief
Announcement by Debbie that Rihanna is the one who has been chosen to come to Painted Dog Conservation.

Clean Polar bear yards with Rihanna
Allowed to visit/take pictures of what I wanted.
Watched the Giraffe talk by Britt
Tiger talk by Julie and cleaning the Leopard enclosures with Julie and Annabeth
Vladimir the Tiger given his birthday “cake”
Clean and change water in the Tigers with Annabeth
Video filming of me and Rihanna by events team
Home for shower and met with Carnivore team at the Hare and Tortoise restaurant for dinner. Derek Fry was also present.

13/05/16
Pack my bags and checkout
Breakfast at the YWP Café with Derek
Farewells to the Carnivore Team
Travel to Maiden Head
Meet Sarah
Visit the timber yard to get quotations on timber.
Went to electrical shop to by satellite dish connectors.
Allotment to see Derek’s garden and chickens, 2 chickens seemed not feeling well
Dinner

14/05/16
Breakfast
Visit Windsor Castle to see Guard change
Meet Tony,Richard and Ian
Tea
Visit the horse show jumping, see Queen Elizabeth II.
Back to Cook ham
Dinner –Fish and chips
Bedtime

15/05/16
Re-pack bags, Breakfast, Shopping, and Lunch and meet Richard.
Depart for Heathrow
Meet Peter and Jealous at the Airport
Check in and go to our terminal.
Board flight at 8 for 9pm departure to Johannesburg
Arrive at 8am; check in at 9 for the Victoria Falls flight which was very rough.
Land at 12:30 at Victoria Falls airport then driven to Dete by David Kuvawoga.

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Many thanks go to everyone I met during my trip and the people who drove me to and from my Cottage (Debbie, Colin, Simon and Amy). Not forgetting Derek Fry and Sarah for everything you did, I enjoyed every minute of my stay at Grey Lourie.

To Peter Blinston, thank you and please keep supporting the Staff exchange program.