The cost for the animal orphanage was
1500 KSH (20AUD) and even though it seemed a little steep, we still decided we
would still take the time and spend the money to have a look. A portion of the money goes back into the
Wildlife Services Fund, so it makes the cost that much more acceptable. After we paid, we were given our tickets and we
were pointed in the direction of the animals.
We entered through a small gate and walked past a very large vegetable
patch where the food is grown for all our 4 legged friends to one last gate to
enter into the animal sanctuary. It was
an open air area with different enclosures and there were some monkeys, some
bongo and some other small animals that were roaming freely. The monkeys are a little scary. I am not a fan of them, as they are smart,
nimble and cunning animals and besides the colobus monkeys I am not a fan. Even the baby ones, so when one little guy
came up to say hi, I freaked, which bought one of the rangers over and said he
would get our ranger to take us around the orphanage. At first glance the section didn’t look that
big and we were all thinking that if this is what we paid the 20 bucks for,
then it was a little overpriced, but we were going to pleasantly surprised.
The Animal Orphanage at the Mount Kenya
Wildlife Conservancy is a unique facility to give orphaned, injured, neglected,
abused or frightened wild animals a second chance. The orphanage provides
shelter and professional care with the goal to release these creatures back
into the wild where they belong. The
Story of the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy is as full of colour, romance and
memorable incident – both human and animal – as any of the classic Out of
Africa sagas.
Yet it’s never been told.
It all began like this… Two young Americans
met up in East Africa for the first time in 1964. They were in Kenya, their
country of choice, for no good purpose other than to enjoy themselves. Do a
Teddy Roosevelt – go off on wild adventurous safaris in the bush, hunting and
fishing, and collecting themselves a bag of the fabled “Big Game” trophies. Kenya was newly independent of British
colonial rule and under the Republic’s founding President, “Mzee” Jomo
Kenyatta, they found the reborn “Black African” land both a warm and welcoming
place – and of beauty beyond description. They bonded closely over the course of
their Safaris into the wildest parts of Kenya. But the thrill of hunting soon
began to wane. What they came to realize was that the sheer pleasure and
personal reward they received from the African “bush” experience were not from
the destruction of wildlife but from feelings of wonder and exhilaration at its
very existence in a timeless natural environment. From that point, they made a pact to do
what they could to protect and preserve the animals. It was at first a day-dream, but over time
they began to talk more seriously about the possibility of owning a small
private part of the wild, with no other agenda than to fulfil their commitment. It would eventually happen. They found a stretch
of pristine rangeland and so began what would be a lifetime’s work of
developing the first project of its kind in “Black Africa” – The Mount Kenya
Game Ranch. The two friends and partners
in the enterprise were film actor William (Bill) Holden and TV personality, Don
Hunt.
They eventually found their perfect site
– 1,216 acres of rough marginal rangeland nestling in the foothills of Mount
Kenya, surrounding the world-famous Mount Kenya Safari Club. Owners Jim and
Betty-Ann Nicholsen were elderly and finally tiring of a hard life of
subsistence on a small annual wheat crop and a few sheep they ran on the land.
They were ready to sell. The deal with
the Nicholsens was duly done and the farm acquired. Dean Johnson, a well-known
U.S. Attorney and Bill’s close friend and mentor, joined the group to oversee
the legalities. From day one, for all
the partners, Kenya would remain “Timeless Africa”. It would take up many hours of deep and
meaningful musings around the campfire on safari, or, more soberly, at breakfast
at the ranch, watching the snowy peaks of Mount Kenya gleaming in the early
light. The farm was all but devoid of
wildlife. It bordered dense forest land and the Mount Kenya National Park,
where traditionally, animals had been hunted for meat – but also, increasingly
at the time, poached for illegal trade in horns and skins. The game warden and
his staff did all they could to contain the onslaught of commercial poaching. Increasing human settlement posed a further
threat to wildlife and people alike. What were once traditional migratory
routes for the game became “conflict zones” and the animals were seen as
trespassers to be chased off or shot. The conflict has yet to be resolved.
Holden and Hunts’ future plans included
the establishment of an education centre as a part of their Ranch, where Kenyan
students could learn about wildlife. It was a project especially important to
Bill Holden. He was in the midst of drawing up architectural plans for the
education centre when he passed away unexpectedly in 1981. Many of Bill Holden’s influential and famous
friends wanted to help financially so that Holden’s dream could be realized. In 1982 the William Holden Wildlife
Foundation was formed in his honour, with the purpose to work and assist in
Kenya with the wildlife education of its youth.
Holden’s companion of many years, Stefanie Powers took over as chairman
of the Foundation, with Don as Vice Chairman and Iris Hunt, Deane Johnson and
Julian McKeand as Directors. Don and
Iris Hunt donated 15 acres of their land to be used as the site of the
education centre. Together the team
build a unique education facility that today is visited by over 10,000 students
annually, free of charge to them. The
education centre also operates an outreach program, builds libraries in schools
and generally assists needy schools with a view to environmental education. With the help of his partners in Kenya
and friends around the world, William Holden’s dream has become a reality. Quite a beautiful story really, and typical
of Africa, where dreams and visions take peoples breath away every day and what
a wonderful cause that is still going strong today 50 years later.
Our guide took us around the first
section of the facility and we got our first introduction to an animal called a
Bongo. Seriously, a Bongo. I don’t think I have EVEER seen one of these
guys in the wild and I have done a lot of hours in a truck in search of
wonderful African animals. The bongo is
the largest and heaviest forest antelope and these spiral-horned creatures are
found only in special dense forest habitats across tropical Africa. The western
or lowland bongo lives mostly at night and is among the largest of the African
forest antelope species. Our guide, Cam,
had pulled some weeds and as we waved them around, these animals that looked a
little like oversized Bambi’s with stripes, came right up to us and ate the
proffered weeds right from our hands.
They seemed very passive and gentle and they even let us give them a
small pay, even the little baby. It was
so cool. Something has to be said about
getting that close to an African animal, for me these guys are the epitome of
Africa, and to get an opportunity to come close to any African animal is ALWAYS
a highlight and something that I will NEVER get tired of. EVER. Along
with the Rothschild giraffe, the eastern bongo is
arguably one of the most threatened large mammals in Africa, with recent
estimates numbering less than 140 animals, below a minimum sustainable viable
population. The situation is exacerbated because these animals are spread across
four isolated populations. Eleven baby bongos
have since been born to at the MKWC herd and kept in the safety of the Mount
Kenya Wildlife Conservancy. The Mount
Kenya Wildlife Conservancy’s Bongo Rehabilitation program was named amongst the
three most important wildlife projects worldwide in 2006 (by AZA).
After saying goodbye to the monkeys and
the Bongo’s, we exited the first section through another gate, walked a small
path and out another gate 20m along and like a blinding light and trumpets
playing we entered into another open air area with more enclosures and a few
more animal roaming freely. The first
animal I saw was the baby GIRAFFE!!!!!!!!!!!
A BABY GIRAFFE!. This was totally
worth paying the 20 bucks just to see the baby GIRAFFE. It’s not the first time I have fed a giraffe,
I have been to the Giraffe centre plenty of times, but to get this close, stand
right next to this 10 week old giraffe was AMAZING to say the least. Cam gave us some leaves that we could feed
the baby giraffe, and even at 10 weeks old she was half a meter taller than
me! We had to hold the leaves above our
head so that she didn’t have to bend her neck to eat and she sucked those
leaves right off the branch, which I held, in MY hand. I could have spent all day just with the baby
giraffe. INCREDIBLE. We had to be careful that she didn’t kick us,
as they are known to be kickers and after a few photos we left the baby in
peace and continued our tour.
In the next 1.5 hours we saw owls, an
African lynx or caracal that is a member of the cat family, Llama’s that were first brought into Kenya by
an American family for use in expeditions up Mt. Kenya. There are now 36 in
total, and they comfortably survive here because the climate is similar to that
in the Andes Mountains of South America.
Primates are also bred here including the my favourite, the black and
white colobus monkeys, which are endangered because of their beautiful fur
coats, which are still used by some tribes as headdresses and garments and I
was able to get a photo opportunity with, some warthogs, dik diks, a bushbuck, waterbucks,
pygmy hippos, more bongos, Hartebeest, ostriches, a 150 year old tortoise that
has been at the orphanage for 40 years (and you were able to RIDE on his
humongous shelled back and some cheetahs to name a few of the animals we
saw. The other highlight of the morning
was seeing a zebroid (also zedonk, zorse, zebra mule, zonkey, and zebrule) which is the offspring of any
cross between a zebra and any other equine:
essentially, a zebra hybrid.
In most cases, the sire is a zebra stallion. Pete the Zebroid is one of the only ones of
their kind left in the world. It takes time to get used to their seemingly odd
appearance, what with their combination of black Grevy's zebra stripes on a
horse's brown body. He was bred in the early 70's by a hunter who wanted the
perfect pack-animal and was one of the few where it happened ‘naturally’ and
wasn’t artificially inseminated. Pete
has outlived the average age of a horse and also of a zebra at the grand old
age of 33!!!!
So as the saying goes, NEVER judge a
book by its cover. The 20AUD entry was
worth every cent and if you are in the region, I would highly recommend a visit
to the Animal Orphanage at the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy. TOTAL highlight for me.
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