Here is an article from a former volunteer, detailing her experience at the Park.
Earning my (cub) stripes – by Diane Macpherson (This article appeared in The Sunday Tribune in March 2010)
Kevin Costner may have had his Dances with Wolves, but he missed out on the thrill of walking with lions and tigers. It’s an experience that volunteers to Seaview Lion Park, near Port Elizabeth, are intimately familiar with.
I spent two wonderful weeks as a volunteer at Seaview from late January to early February. Not knowing what to expect other than what I’d read on their website, I arrived full of excitement, and anticipation. It was to be my annual leave after all, despite it being a working holiday, and there was much to learn about the animals I was going to be helping to care for. But when I clapped eyes on the month-old Siberian tiger cubs, Sho Sho and Faye; the seven lion cubs – aged between seven and eights months old – and the two tiger girls, aged about five months, I knew I’d made the right decision.
Inspired by that wonderful car advert featuring the three-legged cheetah, Lucky, I had started to Google ‘animal volunteer programmes in SA’ from mid 2009, getting far more hits than I’d anticipated. We South Africans are largely unaware, I believe, of the amazing opportunities right on our doorstep. Want to work with marine life, primates, big cats? No problem. There are also numerous volunteer programmes where you can work at an HIV-AIDS centre or orphanage; an education facility, environmental project: you name it, there’s a programme. The overseas market is very au fait with what we have to offer, which made me one of Seaview’s first local volunteers, among people from all corners of the globe, including the UK, Middle East, South America and Europe.
Seaview is special in that you get to work with the animals from day one. Many of the other places I researched only allowed you to do so after a week or more, leaving your time there to be taken up with cutting up their meat and cleaning up after them. Of course we did this at Seaview too, but it was balanced by the remarkable and very special hands-on time we had with the animals. Bottle-feeding a baby tiger is an amazing thing to do, as is stroking a lion cub the size of an Alsatian, while it looks intently into your eyes.
Before you ask how one qualifies to ‘volunteer’, I’d better point out that the word ‘volunteer’ is a bit of an odd fit / misnomer. You pay to take part in the programme (which includes board, lodging and food), and there’s usually a minimum time period that you can stay. Seaview’s was two weeks. When you get there you can see why. There’s a lot to learn and the permanent staff, and other volunteers invest a great deal of time in your ‘education’. In my case, I was just starting to feel as if I was becoming a part of the rhythm of the place, when my two weeks ended.
Rusty and Janice Gibb – a former bank manager and an ex estate agent, own Seaview. Janice recalls: “We had bought some land in Beechview for when we retired. We became friends with the seller of the land who happened to be an agent too, so when we were down on a visit she asked me to look at some of her properties to see if there was an investor in Jo’burg who would be interested in any of them.
“We drove over the threshold of the Park early in the morning, the sun was shining and the dew was on the leaves and some buck were browsing and I thought ‘Wow!’
“It was idyllic. We then drove up the hill and looking down we saw the dilapidated state of everything. The piled-up rubbish and the smell of bad meat was just awful. But by then I was already ‘sold’. I thought we could take early retirement but instead of retiring and building a house we could live on a Game Park and do something worthwhile for Port Elizabeth.
“We took occupation in February ‘97 and started working 24/7 – thoughts of retiring long gone!”
And they’re still working hard – alongside their wonderful team of 10 permanent staff, and of course, the volunteers. The volunteer programme started in 2003. They’ve got a successful White Lion Breeding Programme at the Park; have a reputation for breeding healthy lions for sale to reserves and other parks, and have a host of other animals they care for too, including leopards, caracals, six tigers – who they hope will one day be rehabilitated – giraffe, buck and a crocodile called Chris.
In an average day at the Park, we’d be up early to let the weasel (stinky little fellow) out for a run, and to feed him his meat and give him fresh water. Baby duty would follow: toilet duties with the baby tigers and then bottle-feeding them. Like any newborn, they pooed then ate then slept all day, although by the end of my stay they were teething and starting to play together. I loved them dearly. At 8am, we’d take the seven lion cubs for their walk. They’d play and get up to mischief, and we’d have to sometimes scold them and get them back on the right path, so we could finish the walk and get to the tiger girls, Sasha and Zoya – offspring from the first Siberian tigers born in captivity in Africa — who needed their walk. They went out on a leash though, and it was generally a case of us being taken on a walk, rather than the other way around.
All the animals would be fed and watered, enclosures cleaned; we’d spend some time playing with the caracals, carry on with baby tiger duty throughout the day; do cub handlings with tourists who visited the park and then at 5pm, walk and feed the lion cubs again, and then the tiger girls at about 6pm. It was a long and tiring day, but one which you left feeling content and satisfied that you’d done what you needed to, and helped in the development of some extraordinarily beautiful creatures.
By the end of my stay, I was well and truly hooked. I am already planning my next visit and I eagerly scour my Facebook home page for news from the other volunteers on our babies. “Sho Sho is pooing on his own now,” wrote Israeli volunteer Or Lazmi recently. Or, 22, has spent about nine months in total at Seaview, and is now part of the furniture.
“I found out about Seaview by coincidence. I was traveling with my family through the Garden Route about four years ago. We stumbled upon Seaview, and after a visit there, I had made up my mind that once I was released from the army, I would return as a volunteer. Animals have always been my greatest passion, so an opportunity like this seemed like a once in a lifetime chance I shouldn’t let just pass by.
“I came back to Seaview after finishing my army service for four weeks and ended up staying for six! Less then a year later I returned for another six weeks, before starting a one-year safari tour guide course, that I was inspired to take after falling even more deeply in love with Africa and wildlife through my volunteering experience.
“The day-to-day life at Seaview is quite hectic, but the love and trust you gain from the animals through that hard work is worth every second of it. Seaview’s work towards animal rehabilitation, re-introduction to the wild and breeding programs are something to be proud of being a part of.
“Seaview is my second home and will always be!”
Christine Bevan, 22, from England, is another volunteer who keeps coming back to Seaview.
“Being from England and only being able to see these wild animals in a zoo, the opportunity to work and live in a game park overlooking the sea in South Africa; to wake up to find zebras and giraffes outside my door; to walk with the lions and just to be able to interact with these animals on a daily basis, gaining their trust and affection, was an opportunity of a lifetime I could not miss.
“Since my first trip, I have returned six times, spending around nine months in total at Seaview. What keeps bringing me back is of course the cubs! But what also draws me back is the people. Seaview has become like a second home to me. I’ve met so many great people from all over the world and made some amazing friends who, along with the owners, staff and animals, have made my time there some of the best moments of my life.”
It was a delight to meet volunteers like Or and Christine and experiencing things through their foreign eyes made me, for the most part, very proudly South African. Most of the volunteers are taking a gap year after school or university, but others, like me, were more ‘mature’, shall we say, and had taken leave from work. The experience, I warn you, is not for the faint-hearted. It’s also not for those who just want to cuddle the cubs, but aren’t prepared to dirty their hands cutting up meat – or those who’d freak out when they found a flea or tick on themselves, a daily occurrence. But the rewards of volunteering far outweigh any negatives. I’m counting down the days until my return.
A walk on the wild side is very good for the soul.
