Army Base animal park

Army Base animal park

This year, I made an interesting discovery about our local army base. When random wild animals wander out of the nationally designated game parks, they become nuisances. The public is encouraged to call a soldier to come and "deal" with the animal. Some of these animals are released back into the game parks, but some of them are put into a little park just down the road in the capital city. :) For $2.50, the public is welcome to come and view the animals! Exciting discovery!!! :)

Unfortunately, because the kids interact so closely to the wild animals, I didn't get a lot of pictures for fear of taking my eyes off them for a second. But, they have leopards, cheetahs, wild dogs, lions, snakes, hyenas, and monkeys (I turned my eyes for a second and found abi sticking her hand through the fence feeding the monkey leaves!!!).

I thought you might be interested to see a few pictures of a recent Saturday morning family fun trip.

I doubt this would fly in America for safety reasons, but we are just steps away from 3 live crocodiles. There is no fence or gate separating us. The soldier has a stick in his hand. When someone asked if the crocs could climb, he said "yes, but I will hti it on the nose if it does. Don't worry!"

Again, I DOUBT this would be allowed in the States due to some safety regulations, but to show us the snakes, he just puts them on the dirt in front of us! I am talking 2-3 feet in front of us with no barrier between!!! CRAZY
 He puts it on the ground saying, "This is a puff adder. One bite and you could be dead within 15 minutes. This is a cobra. One bite and you will be dead within the hour. This is a mamba. One bite and ....."
VERY SCARY... especially when there is Abi who keeps wanting to go close to the "cute little snake"!! But, again, the man has his stick and seems quite confident that stick is the key to our salvation!

Can you see the pink in the corner? That is a child!! Can you see how CLOSE they are to the kids!!! AND these are ALL HIGHLY poisonous snakes!

  
As Botswana is a huge home for countless lions, the soldiers get called to collect a lot of roaming lions, especially in the recent drought where they are more prone to leave the game parks in search of food and water. So, the animal park had LOADS of lions!

At one point, Abi was standing by the fence looking at a lion and put her fingers through. The lion was on the other side of the yard and it LUNGED at lightening speeds towards the fence to grab. I was chatting to the other two kids and saw it. Oh my goodness did I go into super woman speeds. I grabbed her just as he came and actually knocked her over. The whole group gasped but in the end, everyone went home with all 10 fingers! SUCCESS!

And here is a nice picture where everyone is safe with the lions behind us. Although, if you look closely at this lioness, she is sizing up those little bite size treats (my children!)

Look carefully in the corner. Those are little baby lion cubs. The kids got to walk in the room and play with them! Pretty cool!

All the kids wanted a turn holding the Python! Anna Catherine was by far the most squeamish. I think if we would have let Caleb, he would have wanted to hold it by himself. Abi couldn't be bothered either way. I don't think she understood the strength of this animal and the possible danger it could pose to her life! The other two are old enough that they understood the "danger" of a huge snake!

Not sure how, but some how my camera switched to a black and white setting when I took this picture! Odd!

The soldier expertly held the mouth but allowed 4 grown men to try and pick the snake up. It is MUCH HEAVIER than it looks!! They struggled!! This python is solid!

When the soldier first brought out the soldier, my two were first to go and "pet" it! Of course, you don't see anna catherine because she was hiding behind me. It took her a LONG time to warm up to the idea of voluntarily touching a snake!

Last but not least... the Hyena... If you have never seen one, you will be shocked at how BIG their faces are! They are MUCH larger than they appear in the movie The Lion King! haha!