2012
27 February:
Bush pig Mobe: He’s in in love with Hugo the puppy. We think the bulky Bulldog reminds him a bit of himself and he shows extra interest whenever the puppy walks by, running over towards him, all happy and excited. Unfortunately the naughty puppy thinks so highly of himself, that whenever Mobe comes along he tries to scare him away by barking at him, which only confuses the poor Bush Pig even more.
Crocodiles Chris and Owen: haven’t fought for a while now and each one keeps to his own corner. It seems like they came to an agreement - Chris gets to rule the pool.
Kenny the Caracal: He has been doing great the last few months- his appetite is back, he finishes all his food and is back to being fed once a day like a grown up cat! He loves it when people come in and spend time with him and lately he started pouncing on your feet when he feels playful, which for the volunteers means it’s time to bring some toys in – throw him his ball or towel and let him have fun.
Meerkats: The meerkats also got some toys last week from Koi Country: we gave them a “Squirrel Dude”, which is a squirrel-shaped rubber toy with a hole at the bottom you can fill with food. We filled it up and gave it to Sid and Mustang, who had fun pulling the food out and marking their territory all over it. Later on we took it away from them and gave it to Tinky and Timmy; they were so excited because of this new enrichment toy that they failed to notice that Mustang had sprayed all over it and kept pushing to get through.
7 January: On the 28th of December we celebrated 3 very special Birthdays! So, Happy 14th Birthday to Nebbi, and 2nd Birthday to ShoSho & Faye!!!
A BIG welcome to our new baby at the park – a six week old English Bulldog puppy belonging to Or. His name is Hugo and he is the most confident and clever little man, strutting around the place like he is top dog! He received a great reception from the lion cubs, tiger babies and big dogs, all of which are very interested in him, while he is just taking it all in his stride . We can’t wait to see all the adventures he will get up to!
2011
28 November: Bushpigs: Butch is a bit of a bully who keeps bossing Sally around, while she has more of a delicate nature. They are on 3 feeds a day of 150ml unpasteurized cow milk each and just started lapping out of a plate. They have also been getting a bit of bread and corn after finishing their milk. They do not like to be picked up and are very ticklish. They love it when you sit down with them and let them climb all over while nudging you.
Laura & Jack: Laura and Jack continue to grow and develop well. Laura especially loves to interact with the tigers when they visit for a bit in the afternoon, and she also loves to play with the dogs. She has found a great friend in Solo the Border Collie, who has more patience and stamina than the rest of the dogs. The two of them run up and down in the garden, taking turns to run in front, while little Jack follows them. He is still very careful about meeting strangers, but continues to grow in confidence. The outside part of their enclosure has been removed and they now have the run of the garden during the day. They still sleep in the roofed part of the enclosure at night, and will continue to do so for a while longer. Although they love to run free during the day, they both still look for the familiar safety of the enclosure when it gets dark.
Meerkats: Timmy’s biting has got worse. At first he would only get aggressive when he was being ignored while Tinky was getting attention, but now he even tries to bite during feeding times and is turning into a very naughty meerkat. Tinky is still very loving and gentle, but for us to spend quality time with her requires keeping Timmy occupied. Sid and Mustang are like two lovebirds – they spend all day together playing and rolling around in the sand. Sid looks so happy now that she has a friend and Mustang seems to be right at home with her on his side.
22 November: Bushpigs: Butch and Sally are doing well and are also growing fast. We are still giving them three bottles of milk a day, as well as leftover vegetables and fruit from the restaurant.
Jack and Laura:The jackals are growing fast now and their colours are really starting to come through. They are beginning to look more and more like the black-backed jackals that they are. Jack is still a little shy but a lot friendlier than he was before. He has really impressive eyes that are pitch-black in colour. Laura is a very friendly and loves to interact with the other animals, like the tigers and Ashley’s dogs. They are both enjoying their food very much, especially the meat, which they sometimes even bury in a hole to save for later!
15 November: The Bushpig babies have been named – they are called Butch and Sally. They are doing very well. They are beautifully coloured with light brown/ yellow stripes on their backs. Butch is a lot calmer than Sally and enjoys jumping into our laps and falling asleep there. We will start working on preparing their enclosure next to our adult Bushpig Mube.
8 November: Jack and Laura- Jack and Laura are settling down nicely. They are becoming more accepting of new people visiting their enclosure. Jack is not hiding away so much and is becoming braver. They both take comfort when Ashley’s dogs are near them, and especially love visits from Nero the Doberman. They receive little treats of cheese every now and then, and absolutely love it. We think that Jack is catching up in size to Laura, and we hope that he will continue to do so. Laura is a beautiful girl and very confident.
Bushpig babies - We have two new baby bushpigs – one boy and one girl. They are three weeks old now. They were brought to us from Somerset East, an area about two hours away from Port Elizabeth. They are currently drinking 4 x 100ml milk a day, and at night we give them crushed goats’ pellets that they also enjoy. They have taken very well to us and have started climbing onto our laps and letting us rub and scratch them.
1 November: Jack and Laura, the jackal puppies are doing great. Jack’s legs are much better. They both are getting really big although Laura is much bigger than Jack. Laura got to meet one of the lion cubs through the fence this week and she loved it. When they touched noses through the fence. Jack is still exploring a lot but hasn’t tried to pull any escape stunts this week.
October 25: Great news! We have four new baby lions born on 16 October, 2 white babies and 2 brown babies. One of the white babies is a girl and the rest are all boys. All the cubs are big and healthy with the white boy being the biggest at 2.5kg. While one of the brown boys is very spotty, the other is very light in colour.
We also have a new meerkat who was donated to the Park. He is 5 years old and his name is Mustang. We introduced Mustang into an enclosure with Syd and she has taken to him very well. This is great news as we were expecting her to behave aggressively but she has even started flirting with him!
18 October: There was a little sad news that came from the sanctuary this week, Bacon the Warthog had to be put down early on in the week. He had some complications after his move and they never came right. Bacon had already grown on many of the volunteers and staff and will be sorely missed.
Some better news, Jack and Laura our little Black-backed Jackal pups are doing very well. Little Jacks legs are straightening out and he is becoming more and more brave and is proving to be quite the little escape artist, although he gets caught every time. Laura is a beautiful little girl. She loves the dogs and gets very excited when they come say hello. We have two new additions to our family.
On Sunday Tian and Dean went to retrieve 2 Barn Owl chicks that were abandoned after the garage that the nest was in burnt down. They seem to be about 3 weeks old and are covered in down feathers with only very few of their primary feathers starting to come through. They are both very feisty and feeding is an exciting event, trying to avoid the sharp little claws and get the food in the mouth. They are both doing very well and hopefully when they are old enough and strong enough we can release them at the Park.
12 October:
Bacon: is one of our newest residents arriving all the way from Grahamstown. He is a 9-month-old warthog and is the sweetest warthog you will ever meet. He was raised on a farm and got to the stage where he is too big for his owners to handle so we were asked to take him on. He had a rough start as he had a medical problem that needed to be addressed and the trip to the vet wasn’t an easy outing but now he is back and used to the electric fence and started to calm down. Yesterday he even kissed Fufa for the 1st time.
Jack and Laura: arrived on the same day as Bacon. They are 9 week old Jackal pups that were rescued by nature conservation after being sold on the black market for Voodoo purposes. They are now being rehabilitated as Jack is under-developed due to the poor diet they were on. We would like to thank Shelly, the Hills & Bayer rep for stepping up and donating AD & ID (extra rich canned food) for the pups – helping us to boost their system quickly. They have been on the Hills diet for less than a week and there is already a huge improvement. We are keeping a daily photo diary to follow their quick development.
Merlin: We are sad to announce we lost Merlin the baby Caracal. We now know the 3 kittens were suffering from a congenital disease transferred to them through their mother. Merlin was rushed to the vet every day for about a week; in attempt to save his precious life but unfortunately there was nothing we could have done. After Merlin passed away we discovered he had an enlarged liver, just like his sister, Kathryn, had. Merlin was buried at the park, in a nice peaceful spot with ocean view were he can rest in peace.
Kenny: got to enjoy his enrichment box for the 1st time this week. Dean built a wooden box with different levels in it and lots of holes on the sides. We put the meat in and then it is up to old Kenny to figure out how to get his dinner out. It took him a while and one of the pieces only came out the next morning but he sure did enjoy the challenge.
Meerkats: Timmy is turning into a little biter and gets jealous if you pay attention to Tinky or if you just don’t pay enough attention to him. We found out he likes it if you throw little stones around and then he runs over to fetch them, Right now that is our only way to get him far enough from Tinky to actually be able to pick her up and spend some quality time with the sweet one out of the two. We haven’t put Sid back in the enclosure yet and she seems to like her new home but that is still work in progress and our future plan.
3 October – Meerkats: The two little ones have settled in to their new enclosure. Timmy is getting a bit feisty and tries to bite to get your attention if you ignore him and only play with Tinky. Tinky is as calm and sweet as ever but with Timmy around, sometimes it’s difficult to have quality time with her. Syd has also settled in nicely and is often found standing on the pile of rocks in her enclosure watching whatever is happening on the outside.
Syd (August 2011)
27 September: Kenny – Kenny is doing so well and he is back to one feed a day. He is still being fed more than usual as he still needs to pick up some weigh but we are definitely on the right track.
19 September – Caracals: Kerry had her babies on the night of the 13th. She gave birth to two boys and one girl. After removing the male out of the enclosure, she seemed to be much more relaxed and so we left the kittens with her for a day so they’ll get the few 1st feeding off of her. We took them out noon time on the 14th as Kerry started looking a bit anxious. Once they were out we noticed one of the males was deformed: he had an under developed skull and a cleft pallet. He was named scar and was fighting hard to survive but eventually died on the morning of the 15th. The little female, Kathryn, sadly died yesterday afternoon. On the post mortem autopsy an enlarged liver was found. Last one standing is Merlin, who was the strongest one out of the bunch to begin with. He is big, eating well and can already hold his head up. He will be staying with Ashley & Charlene for another 2 weeks or so until he feed properly and can be given to volunteers to be cared for.
12 September – Meerkats: After Timmy and Tinky had a chance to settle in, the volunteers – together with Tian and some of the other staff – built the old meerkats enclosure higher up to make it safe for the two new babies, as Timmy has a tendency to jump out and run up to the restaurant through the lions enclosure. Since Syd is not getting along with the younger ones she was moved to the old Rock monitor enclosure for now and after the two feel comfortable enough in their new home, we’ll try to bring them all together once again. Hope it will all work out!
Caracals: After being sick and being taken to the vet, Kenny is doing much better – he is already off his medicine and picking up weight quickly. He is being fed twice daily and is as healthy as ever. Kerry is heavily pregnant and we’ve moved Shai-Lee (the male) from her enclosure to see if that will help calm her down enough to either take care of her babies, or at least for them to survive long enough for us to take them out. Hopefully we’ll have caracal babies by the end of the week if all goes as planned. Right now, volunteers are checking on her every two hours. Nitro is starting to calm down again. After Shai-Lee moved next door he got so unpredictable that we stopped going in with him, but now, every day during animal quality time, volunteers go and sit outside his enclosure and spend time with him which he enjoys very much.
5 September: We have got in another new bird through our rescue project, a Hadeda Ibis. It is a sub adult bird and was found in a swimming pool. The volunteers are taking care of it every day; feeding it worms and other insects that they have found. Once it is fully grown and the wings have fully developed we will release it.
23 August – New bird in our sanctuary area: We have taken in a Spotted Eagle Owl which somebody found. We are not sure yet what happened to him, but it seems as if he is a little bit blind and very weak. Since his arrival, he has gotten a little stronger and is also swallowing his meat on his own now. We have started calling him Hooty. We will try to get him back to full strength again and if we can, we will release him back into the wild.
Timmy (August 2011)
Tinky (August 2011)
15 August – New Meerkats: Timmy (male) and Tinky (female) are our new arrivals at the park. They are both less than a year old. They were raised and kept as pets by a woman who lived close by to the park, she decided to move closer to the centre of PE and felt they would do better off here than in town. Tinky came to us having lost a foreleg, but you wouldn’t know because she is just as playful and active as Timmy. They have been hand-raised and enjoy human contact.
Despite their friendliness, they are creating havoc in the restaurant! We are working on getting their enclosure ready for them. Now they are staying in a temporary enclosure by the restaurant and have managed to escape several times a day. Luckily when they escape their temporary enclosure, they come straight to us. We should have a more secure enclosure ready by the end of the day. At this time we have them separate to Syd as we are afraid that she may not take well to the new inclusions but hopefully with some work she will accept her new friends.
25 July: Sissie is a Vervet monkey who is here at Seaview as a stopping point on her trip to a monkey rehabilitation/sanctuary center. She won’t stay with us long, but the volunteers are trying to spend as much time getting to know this adorable monkey as possible before she goes.
Baby Goat is now at a touch farm and is being terribly spoiled with her new family. We miss her here at Seaview, but we all love the fact that she is getting the love and attention she deserves.
11 July: Dean has gotten a new 8-week-old Chocolate Lab puppy, which he’s named Archie. Archie has quickly become a favorite in the restaurant. He sleeps in his box and comes out to play when he’s awake. He’s been bonding with the babies and so far hasn’t had any major problems with the bigger cubs. Mika has tried to test his endurance by chasing him but Archie barks, jumps, and bites back.
4 July: We had an exciting weekend here at Seaview. We received three new additions to our lion family on Friday night: two female cubs and one male, each seven-weeks-old. They weren’t sure what to make of us at first but now are crawling all over the restaurant and making hearts melt. We are still trying to find names that match their personalities.
Baby Goat (aka Delilah) has been tormenting all of the animals on site: The leopards have taken to stalking her, Kenny nearly trips over himself to get as close to her as possible, Adam almost got a mouthful when she pushed her head through the fence to get some of the green grass on the other side. She is constantly underfoot around the shop, and is always letting people know she’s around, but despite all of her annoying habits she’s still our favorite pesky little goat.
14 June: We have a new addition to the park. We’ve got a new Nile crocodile which we have put in the same enclosure as Chris. It is a little smaller than Chris but they are doing well together. We are also planning on making their enclosure bigger.
31 May: Baby Goat: Baby goat has got a new friend: Solo, Ashley’s dog. Solo likes to herd Baby Goat around the parking lot and Baby Goat then turns and looks at him and tries to head butt Solo! Baby Goat is getting more curious now and is exploring more of the area under the boardwalk looking for nice fresh grass to eat.
Solo and Baby Goat - new friends! (Photo: May 2011)
13 May: Baby Goat is still melting peoples hearts every day. She is also getting fatter by the day. She spends the whole day trimming the grass in the parking lot keeping it nice and short and neat for the visitors. We have also had a lot of rain in the last week and whenever it would rain she would come running inside to the volunteers tables and find someone’s legs; crawl up into a ball and go to sleep there until that person decided to move.
5 May: Australian volunteer, Tamz Williams (pictured directly below), who was with us from October, left at the end of April – leaving a big gap at Seaview. She has been invaluable at the Park and has loved her time here. Tamz is back in Sydney now, but is already saving to come back! Thanks for all your hard work and friendliness Tamz, we miss you!
Tamz giving a 'tiger hug' in Jan 2011
Baby Goat (Photo: April 2011)
25 April: Baby Goat is still amongst us, and as cute as ever. When we renovated the babies enclosure with new grass and sand on the inside and outside, Goat comes over to the edge and rolls around in the new sand. So we put a big pile of sand in her enclosure for her to play in. She also rubs up against the fence and pokes her ears through the holes, and we are sure soon enough one of the babies will grab hold of it and eat it off. She knows her pellets come in the white ice creams tubs so whenever she spots one she rumages through it to find food.
A new baby giraffe was born at the park! He or she (we are not sure yet) is about 1 week old and very elusive. The mother and baby are on their own for now and are not hanging around with the other giraffes. We have spotted it once and it is so cute! So tiny and a little baby face, however its already 2 metres tall.
Also, we have a new staff member. His name is Dean Wraith and has taken the position of Restaurant Manager, but has qualifications in game ranging and wildlife, and was previously working near the Kruger National Park as a guide. We are very happy to welcome Dean to the team!
4 April: Baby Goat is so cute she has stolen everyones hearts. She responds to “Baby Goat” when we call her and she will run across the car park to say hello (even with grass still in her mouth!). She gets let out all day of her enclosure (the one just outside the restaurant near the pay phone) and spends the day eating grass, flowers and plants and watches us cut the meat up at 4:00pm. All the animals love to pretend stalk her but she doesn’t even notice, just continues eating and wandering around. All the tourists pet her and kids love her, and will be nice for her over the school holidays to receive lots of attention!
8 March: Here’s an update on Baby Goat as we know a lot of recent volunteers want to know how she is going! Well she’s going off the bottle and grazing much better now, actually eating plants and grass with nutrition, unlike dead leaves and sticks as she used to. She walks down to the herd every day and by the end of the week she will hopefully be part of the family again. She has developed a fondness for people however, and follows everyone around. She does wander around the boardwalk too, and causes a lot of fuss with the cubs and leopards as she walks past, however Baby Goat doesn’t even see them! She cries a lot if she get lonely so a lot of the public give her attention to keep her happy! Will let you know when she returns completely to the herd.
17 February: We have a new edition to the park: Baby Goat! She is a couple of weeks old and was rejected by the herd of goats in the Park. So we took her in and we feed her and walk her with Pinny, Skyla and Coby every day now! All get along very well.
11 January: Babies, Skyla and Coby are looking excellent and so very cute. They are drinking 150mls per feed and have been treated for worms as well, so they are picking up quite a lot of weight. Coby now weighs 3.8kg and Skyla weighs 3.5kg. They are becoming more co-ordinated and are walking around and exploring the shop/restaurant area. The girl is much more vocal than the boy and loves attention!
11 January: In 2011, it is our plan to utilise 20ha (approx 50 acres) of presently unused land for the purpose of building a healthy pride of lions which we hope can eventually be released into the wild. The area will be fenced and we will build a hide from where staff and volunteers will be able to monitor the lions.
4 January: Our two newest cubs are making excellent progress. They are now at the sanctuary area. The blue-eyed girl is a white lion, named Skyla and the boy is tawny in colour, and called Coby. The boy weighs 2,830kg and the girl weighs 2,710kg. They have eventually stopped fighting their bottles now when we try to feed them and are drinking very well. They are getting 100ml per feed and are having five feeds a day. They are very good babies but do like to use their little claws a lot so we are all very scratched. Both sleep a lot and get lots of compliments from all the tourists visiting in the busy school holidays on how cute they are.
1 January: A Happy New Year to everyone! Our wonderful news is that our two newest additions are healthy and gorgeous. They are up at the restaurant area now and have been named. The girl, a little white lion, is Skyla and the boy, a brown lion, is Coby. We’ve been so busy at the Park that we haven’t had time for weekly updates but we will post more news soon.
2010
24 December: We’re delighted to announce that the latest babies have been born, finally! The two were born to Thor and Savannah yesterday. And Janice is very happy as she says it looks like it’ll be a white Christmas at Seaview! See our first photo below.
Below are some photos of the five boys: Cliff, Riley, Max, Preston and Zulu – as of mid November 2010. Look how beautifully their manes are coming along!
30 November: First photos of our new baby boy! His name is Pinny. Isn’t he gorgeous?
29 November: EXCITING NEWS! Jenny and Nebbie brought into this world a beautiful baby boy! He was born last Monday, 22 November, and today he was taken out of his enclosure and brought up to Janice’s house. He is a healthy 2 kilos and is very clean and cute. He has lots of dark spots on his head and is very light in colour. No name as of yet but we will keep you updated!
Sad news: Fat Mamma the meerkat is not doing too well but we are nursing her. We believe her age is catching up to her as their life expectancy is around 12 years and she is now 10. We will keep you updated on her condition. UPDATE: She sadly died in late November. She was about 12 years old and died of old age. 
28 OCTOBER: The beautiful Servals arrived today! Woohoo..and we are pleased to say they are very good looking, healthy and happy, and have spent the mid-morning running, climbing and jumping around their new home in the restaurant. They are currently on 4 feeds a day (1 bottle and 3 feeds of chicken or beef). We love the new addition to the park!
16 OCTOBER: Janice and Rusty have purchased a breeding pair of servals this week that are 6 weeks old. We have to wait for the permit before we can bring them to the park but they are both very playful and sweet. They are eating 2 meat servings and 3 bottle servings a day.
10 SEPTEMBER: Volunteer Tomer Mason built a Monkey table for the monkeys. We’ve placed it in the Park, at the ridge of the first hill as you drive towards the lion enclosures. We are putting fruit on it and hope to attract the monkeys to this area, away from the restaurant area.
Tomer also built a platform for the Meerkats so that they can what’s going on over their wall!
6 SEPTEMBER: Our beautiful new cub kitchen is up and running. Only needs a few minor adjustments but is totally functional already. It’s the old storeroom where the umbrellas were stored. It has a sink, kettle, blender, all animal food/equipment is stored in there.
