Friday 6 May 2016

I start the day feeding Frank, of whom I have become exceedingly fond.  Today he hurries to meet me at the wire, clamps straight on to the bottle and begins sucking in earnest.  He knows the teat needs to be released periodically to allow air to follow back into the bottle, and does this in a timely fashion.  His beautiful brown eyes search my face anxiously, probably looking for any sign that I may attack.  Foster mum Target hurries up behind him and, slipping her arms around his waist and stomach, hugs the bottom portion of him to her fiercely.  She look me in the eyes briefly while continuing to hug Frank, then begins to groom him as he continues to feed.  When Frank is sated, they adjourn to a few feet away to do a little grooming, then Frank comes back for a second, less urgent feed.  I pick up a large Chamwamba* tree leaf and push it past the wire, and both Frank and Target seize on this with interest. Frank wins the tug of war, and Target moves further away and begins picking at something on the floor.  Frank follows then plumps himself down back to back with her, then places his two back legs on her lower back and starts pushing them up her back until his unmentionables are on her head, and her tail is in his face.  In this unusual position, he stays contentedly, chewing at the leaf.  Meanwhile Target site passively with two testicles peeping coyly over one ear like a stylish hat.  Happy in their togetherness, I reluctantly leave them, and head back to the Orphan Care department to start on morning cleaning.

My next job is to feed our 3 resident hedgehogs, to wit, a mother and baby, and a lone adult female.  There are 4 species of African hedgehogs (genus Atelerix) including pygmy hedgehogs which are sometimes kept as pets. They are nocturnal, of course, and essentially terrestrial, although they can also climb and swim (http://www.britannica.com/animal/hedgehog-mammal) Here is some useless information for you : the name hedgehog came into use in the UK around the year 1450, derived from the Middle English heyghoge, from heyg, hegge ("hedge"), because it frequents hedgerows, and hoge, hogge ("hog"), from its piglike snout. As with monkeys, hedgehogs are considered vermin here, and for the most part they are ignored or killed.  However no animal is refused treatment here at the sanctuary, and our head of rehabilitation, Alma, has already assessed the hedgehogs, written a food and care plan for them, and checked their weight.  The baby and lone adult female are underweight but otherwise they seem healthy and are excellent candidates for release, which will happen as soon as they have gained enough weight.  I weight out wet dog food, dry dog biscuits (soaked in a teaspoon of hot water to soften), cat biscuits (left crunchy), egg, fruit and vegetables, mix them and take them out to their enclosure which is in quarantine at present.  We weighed each of them, lifting each prickly ball and placing it on the scale in turn.  There are variously sized cardboard boxes around the enclosure, along with plenty of branches, leaves and grass. The hedgehogs seem to like the cardboard boxes most, and I suppose it does provide very snug and complete protection from any potential threat.  We have to prise them out of the boxes gently and put them on the scale. All are sleeping soundly, and are most reluctant to wake.  Slowly they begin to uncurl, a slow kaleidoscope of spiral of brown spines revealing paler ones,  then cream spines and finally delicate looking fine spines of the purest cream on their faces and tummies. Their eyes open, and they peer in bemusement at us as we write down our weights. Each is then lifted again very carefully and placed back where we found them.  The most inoffensive little creatures in the world, may they be ten thousand times  blessed. (I heard they go well with potato and a little redcurrant sauce).

Walking p back to the volunteer facilities via the sanctuary’s very own Co-Co bean café this morning we saw some of the wild vervet monkeys prowling around.  The local wild vervets have been getting bolder and bolder, which is a problem, because they steal things. And of course monkeys are very clever, although we were not sure how clever. One walked up to a bin very close to the cafe and sniffed it.  My colleague and I began a discussion around whether or not it would occur to him to look in the bin for food, but he began to stroll away so we concluded probably not.  Still, out of curiosity, we stopped as we came to the end of the walkway to watch.  The monkey had been swaggering away nonchalantly from the bin, but once we had apparently left the area, he returned quickly, stepped behind a tree and (I swear this is true) sucked in his abdominals, peered around the tree, then out came one black claw and effortlessly, he whipped up the lid.   He bent for a quick sniff, plucked something out, put back the lid and scampered off with his spoils further into the bush.  So there you go.  One of the parties at The Meeting Of The Bin was an idiot, and it obviously wasen’t the monkey.

A quick reminder again - I do not have any photos of Frank or any of the other animals we have here to post because we are careful not to humanise them by making them over familiar/dependent on us, through chatting to them, hanging around their cages and/or taking photos.  All the photos on the blog are from google images, but I post them because it gives the reader a very good idea of the animals I am working with (and anyway they are soooooo beautiful, who wouldn't want to see these little gorgeous things)..

*The Chamwamba (Moringa Olifera - The Horseradish Tree) The Moringa tree is native to parts of India, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, but was introduced to Malawi many years ago. It is best known in Malawi by its Chichewa name “Chamwamba”. The Moringa tree is very useful to humans and it is easy to see why Indian settlers would have brought this tree with them. A few of the uses for Chamwamba are:

1. Food: The leaves, flowers, seed pods, seed oil, and roots are all edible. 
2. Leaves: One study has shown that the leaves have 10 times as much vitamin A as carrots, 7 times as much vitamin C as oranges, 4 times as much calcium as milk, three times as much potassium as bananas, and almost the same amount of protein as eggs. The leaves can be used raw, boiled, stir-fried, or added to soups. Flowers: can be cooked and added to other foods, or fried like pumpkin flowers are. They can also be steeped in hot water and used as a tea.
3. Young seed pods: are usually cut into pieces, boiled, and mixed with seasonings. 
4. Roots: can be used when the plant is 60 cm tall. The root is pulled up, scraped, ground, and mixed with vinegar and salt to make a relish similar to horseradish. Care should be taken to remove the root bark completely since it contains harmful alkaloids. Even then, the roots should not be eaten in excess. 
5. Cooking Oil: The dried seeds of Chamwamba contain 40% oil that is close to the quality of olive oil. Water Purification: The crushed seeds of the Moringa tree act as a natural coagulant which binds to solids and bacteria in dirty water, causing them to sink to the bottom. Treatment with this seed powder can produce clean water with 90-99% of the bacteria removed