Protect Wildlife - Tumblr Posts
I'm sadly a day late and had to take pictures of pictures for this but I wanted to celebrate International Vulture Awareness Day nevertheless!
This beautiful beast is Gomez, a gorgeous White-Backed Vulture with whom we shared 3 very 'brat' summers 😄
From deceptively adorable rescue chick to proud surveyor of his kingdom (aka the whole sanctuary) Gomez's greatest hits include:
- Walking very slowly and deliberately up wooden steps when he could have just flown
- Generally pretending he couldn't fly and needed to be bribed with treats to complete his training
- Fiercely staring down any volunteer who got too close to his beloved perch on the top of the volunteer's lapa
- Objecting to me stopping him chewing an electric cable by savaging my knee (yup it really hurt even though he was still a youngling)
- Holding both my friend and I hostage simultaneously even though one of us was in our room and one of us was in the shower block two doors down
- Turning his beak up at horse penis, despite eating anything going in the wild, so he could hold out for the good stuff
Gomez eventually realised he had bigger kingdoms to conquer and self-released once he became more and more comfortable with flying but I cherish the time we spent with that cheeky little character 😆
Vultures are fascinating, critical members of the ecosystem. They play a vital role in the natural cycle of life and greatly benefit their environments and the other creatures that share them. I would encourage anyone to learn more about nature's sassiest clean-up crew and find out what you can do to protect these beautiful birds 🥰
I got to pick the topic for our next movie club meeting again and I chose films set in, or focused on Africa, especially central or southern Africa because my heart aches for Namibia. It's been 8 years since we were last there volunteering to help protect wildlife and empower members of the San tribe.
My most favourite place I've ever been ❤️
In a wild coincidence, when I randomly shared my favourite rhino picture from my time in Etosha last night I didn't even realise today is International Rhino Day!!
Flashback again to that time we got up at some forsaken hour for the first safari of the day, bleary-eyed and trying to process the beauty of the sunrise, and we ran into that gorgeous Mama and Baby Black Rhino crossing the path.
Getting excited as quietly as we could we took photos, many of which I don't have handy to share at the moment sadly, including the shot I posted which is alas maybe not as crystal clear as it could be but which I am very proud of nonetheless.
Even more proud though of the amazing work done by wildlife defenders, researchers and ambassadors, from fiercely protective locals to scientists, funders and volunteers from all over the world every day to restore and grow the precious numbers of rhinos left in the wild ❤️
Adding photo again for context 😄
