Allyson's Adventures: Zwalakhi

I have now moved up the eastern coast of South Africa to a town called, Plettenberg Bay, or Plett to the locals. Here I will begin my next volunteer program with an organization called ORCA. It is billed as an ecotour and education group that focus on whale and dolphin programs.

I arrived on Thursday, and was expecting to get to work on Friday, but the weather was not cooperating and none of the whale boats were going out. So the coordinator called around to some of her other contacts and soon hooked me up with an adventure of a lifetime. I was to babysit a 3 month old male leopard named, Zwalakhi. I couldn't believe it when she got off the phone with the Tenikwa Wildlife Awareness Centre and told me what they had in store for me.

A baby leopard...surely there must be some misunderstanding. Maybe leopard means some else in Afrikaans. People don't just hand over leopards to just anyone. You must need to have years of education and training... You must need to be known to this centre and have excellent credentials... You must need to be a trained professional in a field other than telecommunications! Apparently not. I arrived at the centre and within 10 minutes I was inside a 20 square metre enclosure with the cutest little ball of fur.

Zwalakhi - 3 month old male leopard

Zwalakhi (pronounced zoowa•la•kee) is a Zulu word meaning "the world belongs to everyone". However, no one has explained that to him, and at the moment the he things the world and everything in it belongs to him.

He was in the middle of a photo shoot when I arrived. He has only been at the centre for 2 weeks, and they are still getting materials together to advertise their new addition. He was born in captivity in a breeding centre in northern South Africa. The Tenikwa centre was originally only a rehabilitation centre for various species of African birds and cats, and was closed to the public. It has now transitioned into an education centre where people can come to see and even walk amongst the animals. The owners are particularly trying to education the local population to the adverse impact of killing off these animals. According to the research, if a farmer kills off a leopard or cheetah to protect his livestock, then he creates an opening for caracals to come in. Caracals are smaller cats, but they have a drive to kill in higher quantities. A leopard or cheetah only makes a kill when it needs food. A caracal can kill 20 or more sheep in a single night just for sport.

Anyway, back to my particular adventure...

My responsibility was truly that of a babysitter. I was to play with him, help feed him, make sure he didn't hurt himself or others, and most importantly, make sure he didn't try to get out of his enclosure. It has been a long time since my babysitting days, and my skills were a little rusty.

Just like any new job, I was immediately put to the test. Zwalakhi decided to try out his stalking abilities on the newbie. As I had been instructed, he was allowed to stalk his toys (that is a good display of his natural instincts), but he mustn't stalk people. If he began to stalk me, then I was to say "No Zwalakhi, no stalking". If he persisted and began to move in for the kill, so to speak, then I was to swat him aside with an open hand and tell him "No". This is apparently what the mother leopards do. However, mother leopards are equipped with claws and teeth that can come in handy when trying to make the point to a rambunctious cub. I had no such defenses and Zwalakhi was still getting use to his own weapons of mass destruction. Mandy, the woman who gave me my 5 minute instructional on baby leopard management was well scared with recent scratches and nips. My only recourse was a walkie talkie radio I was left with to call out if I needed anything. I envisioned my finally words being , "No Zwalakhi...MAN DOWN!!"

Despite his early attempts at capturing his first Canadian meal, we quickly fell into a pattern of playing, posing and snoozing (on his part, not mine). I had several toys to entertain him with. His favourite was a rubber ball attached to a long rope that I would roll along the ground or swing around me in a circle. He would chase it for about 30 seconds, darting along and doubling back to catch it as it swung past again. He would then suddenly lunge up at a much faster speed and tumble to the ground with the ball in his teeth or claws. He caught the ball about 8 times out of 10. The funniest part would be when he would cut in too quickly and run right into my legs. The first few times were not that funny for me, since I wasn't sure if he was going to take a swipe at me. Sometimes he would even use my feet is a perch to pounce from. It is quite an amazing sensation to feel him coil down into his back legs in anticipation for the big jump.

Once he had the ball properly in his teeth, he would give his head a good sharp shake (this essentially breaks the neck of his prey). He would then start to drag it off to his tree. Leopards are well known for their incredible strength. They can bring down prey heavier than themselves, but more remarkably, they then drag their catch up into a tree, so other predators can't steal it from them. So, little Zwalakhi was practicing his prey storage skills too.

There were several small trees in the enclosure that served as his hiding places. Unfortunately the only ones small enough for him to get up, were not quite strong enough to hold him up. By the end of the day, he had uprooted or snapped 4 trees. Each time he would get himself up into the thin branches, snug down to have a good chew on his rubber ball and then one of three things would happen. One, he would shift his weight too much and come falling out of the tree with a crash and a thump. This was always followed by a shake of the head and a look like "What? I meant to do that". Two, there would be a shift in the soil at the base of the tree, and then the whole tree would uproot and tip over in slow motion. All the while, Zwalakhi was completely oblivious to the impeding butt bouncing thump he was about to get. The final option was that the tree roots would hold strong, but his particular branch would give way. In this case, there would be a series of snaps and crackles which would generally alert you to the upcoming folly. However, Zwalakhi's experience is not developed enough so he would simply look around and then plummet to the ground with a look of astonishment. Every time it gave me the giggles. Especially when he'd go back to the busted down tree and sit on it like there was nothing wrong, "What? This is still a tree. See, look, I am back in the tree". What can I say, after several hours of swinging a rubber ball around in a circle, almost anything is entertaining.

Munching on his favourite fallen tree

We also had to put on a bit of a show for any of the tours that came by. He never failed to put on a good series of poses. His favourite move, however, really emphasized the fact that he was a wild animal. He would always get into stalker mode and track the smallest child in the group. Without fail, he would wind his way up to the fence and pounce. Most of the time, the child wouldn't be that phased, but he did manage to get a few kids to cry. When I explained to the adults what he was doing, they would immediately pull their kids away from the fence. Cute little kitty can kill a child even at only a few months old.

By the middle of the afternoon he was quite accustom to me and me to him. He would pad up next to me and flop down across my feet or lap. He would let me pet him and scratch his tummy. It was totally amazing to be that close to such an incredible creature. In less than a year, he will be too strong and too aggressive to have any direct human contact. This was definitively a chance of a lifetime, and I enjoyed every single minute of it.