Tanikwa Wildlife Awareness Centre - The Cats

Our first stop of the weekend was Tanikwa Wildlife Awareness Centre.  Tanikwa has a wild cat sanctuary and a number of native birds and meerkats.  They also have a rehabilitation Centre that accepts any injured, abandoned or displaced wild animals from along The Garden Route.  Animals are treated, cared for and when ready, returned to the wild. 

They have numerous up close and personal interactive experiences, like a sunset walk with the cheetah's.  The only problem was that there was a height restriction of 1.5m.  We were told, on arrival, that though the cats were used to humans they are still wild cats and anything smaller than 1.5m could be seen as prey.  So, since none of the kids met the requirement,  we did the only "experience" available to us, The Wild Cat Experience.  It was a 1 hour guided tour around the facility to see indigenous wild cats and other endangered wildlife. 

We were introduced to the Centre through a video that explained how natural habitats were being effected by construction and commercial forestry.  How animals were being hunted for parts and the carcasses left to rot.  How farmers were shooting (and killing) endangered wild cats for attacking livestock.  A couple of the photos were graphic, but true, and the picture of the dead rhino with no horn was as disturbing as it was meant to be.  There was a greater message of hope however, that this generation could and was making a difference through education and conservation.  Their tag line is "we are the last generation who can make a difference". 

Wild cats go for the kill by biting the neck to sever the jugular vein.  There was a display of safety collars both plastic and metal that could be fitted around the necks of livestock to protect them and our guide told us of educational awareness programs to educate farmers that killing endangered wild cats was not necessary.  There was also a poster pleading that travellers not purchase porcupine jewelry. It has become commonplace for porcupines to be killed for all of their quills rather than the past practice of picking up quills that had already been shed in an effort to feed the demand for porcupine jewelry.  Because of this change in practice the porcupine is a threatened species here.

After the video we were instructed to take off anything dangly that might be mistaken for a toy by the cats. Our sunglasses had to be removed too, as the cats do not like it when the cannot see the eyes of what has entered their enclosure.  We were also warned not to look directly at any of the cats as it would been interpreted as a challenge.

With all of our gear stored, our first stop was the African wild cat.  We entered the enclosure with the guide and were told that the children should stay close to the grown ups in order to look like one large animal instead of several smaller ones.  Now, African wild cats are quite small,  in line with a really big house cat in Canada.  Why they are endangered is that they have been mating with common house cats and creating feral cats.  The actual pure gene pool of the wild cat has become very small thus endangering the survival of the species.

Here is an African wild cat.  Being nocturnal it was happily sleeping when we visited.

Next was the leopard.  His enclosure is not accessible for close up interaction.  It's wasn't hard to understand why, when we saw the size of the claw marks on the trees that he loves to climb.  We were told that this is the expression he gets when he is sizing up a little DD for a meal. 

The thing that struck me the most about the leopard was the size of his paws.  They were huge in comparison to his body.  It wasn't hard to imagine how big the claws would be if you looked at the paws and calculated about how far back a retracted claw would go.  Truly bone chilling stuff.

Next we met the Caracal.  What a beautiful creature.  He was really "friendly" with us.  You know how a house cat will come up and rub itself against your legs,  well that's just what this little boy was doing.  He was pushing his way in between us and rubbing our legs.  The guide told us that they do this to mark their territory and try to cull the smaller members of the group away by getting in between us.  DS #2 kept trying to reach down and pet the "nice kitty".  Thankfully dh and I were instructed to hold the children's hands, so it wasn't an issue.  The guide kept moving the cat away so that we could walk without tripping over him.  He was a beautiful and sleek cat reminding me of a small cougar or mountain lion, except for the ears.  It was hard to take a good photo given that he was so "friendly", but here it is.



Next was the Serval.  Sometimes they are mistaken for a young cheetah or leopard.  They are sleek and build for speed and jumping, like cheetah's, but eat small rodents not larger animals.

We were then escorted into the cheetah enclosure. They were still juveniles and fully grown, but not fully filled out.  Park policy is to have a second guide to locate them and assess their mood while our guide stayed with us.  We were lucky that they were in a good mood.  As we approached the female was very alert.  When we stopped walking closer she started to purr.   It was by far the most memorable part of the experience at Tanikwa to hear the deep throaty purr of this gorgeous creature.  In the end she was relaxed enough to groom herself a little in our presence.

The male was much more alert and wary than the female, you can tell from his look. 

The guide told us that leopards and cheetah's were often confused with each other because of their spotted coats. After seeing them up close, it is easy to see that the big paws, wide head and thick stocky muscled body of the leopard is built for jumping, climbing and pulling carcasses up into trees to eat.  Cheetah's are really quite dainty in comparison.  Thin, tall, small paws, and build for speed on the ground. 

Next Post - Tanikwa Wildlife Awareness Centre - Meerkats and Marabou's