Brooke Parry in Africa
Pete and I went to visit a veterinarian, Ulf (covered on "The Wild Vet" of National Geographic), who is working to set up a nature reserve in Namibia. With the help of a South African investor, Miena (a 27 year old woman who inherited some money from her grandmother and wanted to do something significant with it), the vet has just purchased 20,000 acres just outside the capital.
Pete planned the trip in order to develop a conservation-based case for the finance curriculum on this project for the business school. Pete and I spent many hours with Ulf and Miena, brainstorming about how to make the nature reserve work financially, ecologically, etc. Pete and I want to continue working with them to make this nature reserve operational, as well as expand its area. Along the way, Pete and I had some practically unbelievable interaction with wildlife. Hence, the pictures...
Pete planned the trip in order to develop a conservation-based case for the finance curriculum on this project for the business school. Pete and I spent many hours with Ulf and Miena, brainstorming about how to make the nature reserve work financially, ecologically, etc. Pete and I want to continue working with them to make this nature reserve operational, as well as expand its area. Along the way, Pete and I had some practically unbelievable interaction with wildlife. Hence, the pictures...
The morning I turned 30, Pete and I went for a walk with two leopards being raised by Ulf. The leopards see us as being leopards too, so if we head off for a walk, they come along! The leopards are about 7 months old in this picture.
Here Pete and I are sitting with Miena, one of the leopards, and Jack the Jack Russell. Jack has known the leopards since they were small cubs, and seems to be the leader of their somewhat unusual pack. We are sitting around a fire and having a bbq, something we did often. This would sometimes drive the leopards a little wild – since they also wanted to eat the meat. One night, I had a leopard paw right in my plate!
Here Pete is feeding a wild juvenile cheetah (an endangered species) that had been attacked by an adult leopard. This cheetah was flown from southern Namibia (the first night that we arrived) in order to be treated by Ulf. This picture was taken after the cheetah had been recovering for about a week and was starting to eat again. He continues to make good progress.
Here Pete and I are with an adult cheetah living on a small nature reserve, owned by a friend of Ulf‚s. You can see that Pete is whistling in this picture – he is making the "I am a cheetah" call. The Cheetah Conservation Fund, a Namibian organization trying to protect cheetahs by relocating them to safer places, placed this cheetah on this nature reserve. There is a conflict between cheetah conservationist and ranchers, who want to kill cheetahs so that they do not eat their livestock.
Here is Pete hunting with one of the leopards for the leopard's dinner. According to Ulf, Pete must have been a sniper in a previous life...since he seems to be a very good shot. This was an incredible bonding experience – as if the leopard knew what Pete and I were doing, and that Pete was working to get his dinner.
