AfriCat’s Information and Carnivore Care Centre gets a face lift
The revamped information centre at AfriCat’s Information and Carnivore Care Centre
The new office offers the team some privacy for meetings or when dealing with phone calls.
The guests visiting the Information Centre and clinic will no longer be disturbed by telephones ringing and ‘Radio-Okonjima’ broadcasting while they try to concentrate on the AfriCat and carnivore information displayed across the room.
The Okonjima guides will also be able to explain the centre’s different projects in a more relaxed fashion, explaining research projects and how it all started in several languages.
For those fortunate enough to have attended the Annual Health and Dental Checks over the years, part of the new office now stands on the section where the cats recovered in their overnight wooden crates. The ‘recovery’ area will be moved behind the current clinic, away from the noise of passing vehicles and people, which means less stress for the animals, post anaesthetic.
Four new hides will be built for the four captive leopards that, sadly, will not be released back into the wild. Their expansive new enclosures will provide greater privacy. The world famous Wahu will now only be seen half the time, giving him more ‘alone time’ which permits him to share the lime-light with Shakira, Lewa, and Mick. The AfriCat North captive lions will move to AfriCat’s Care Centre on Okonjima at the end of November to give schools visiting the Environmental Education programme a more intense and balanced experience as before they could only see leopards and cheetahs.
All the cheetahs currently at the rehabilitation facilities near the airstrip will move closer to the Care Centre away from the reserve perimeter fence.
The second phase of the revamp, planned for for this year, will see the wall between the Information Centre and the kitchen area coming down to make even more room and wall space for information displays and research.
