Chester University’s Samantha Hollick talks about her time volunteering on the Predator Sanctuary Project , South Africa
After a week volunteering at the Predator Sanctuary project I was offered the opportunity to go and volunteer at the local penguin rehabilitation centre as I had expressed an interest in the rehabilitation of wild animals which was quite a privilege. However this meant that twice a day, for an hour each time I would be away from The Predator Sanctuary project, when I had only really just started getting to know everyone and everything. At first I didn’t want to miss out by doing other things. However when I looked back I saw it as an opportunity and another way to expand my knowledge and get the most from my time in South Africa. It has been great for me and really encouraged me to become involved in different things, driving me to work hard everywhere I am. From that experience I also made the commitment to volunteer at the penguins’ everyday and now volunteer once a week at the local vets and at all three placements I try to give 100%. I’m no longer afraid to leave for few hours a day, and know I’m gaining valuable experience with big cats such as lions and tigers to baby penguins and sick seabirds to normal cats and dogs. I have been shown my efforts have been recognised as I have been asked to be UK ambassador for the penguin sanctuary in a thank you letter, and asked to come back and volunteer with them again. My effort at The Predator Sanctuary project was also recognised on several occasions, from one of the guides to Jurg and Karen’s overall comments about my stay with them. Part of the job at The Predator Sanctuary project for the guides is going to farms to collect meat for the animals at The Predator Sanctuary project, this means slaughtering calves and cows. At first I didn’t want anything to do with this and felt uncomfortable with the whole idea of being involved. I went with one of the guides, waiting in the truck while one of the farm workers slaughtered the calves and loaded them into the truck. While waiting for the car to be loaded I took the opportunity to be positive and try to learn from the situation and talked to the guide to get more information on what we were doing, how she coped, why we did in this way, how much we needed, etc. I had only looking at it from the animal’s point of view being slaughtered, when there was a positive side, without this meat all the animals at The Predator Sanctuary project would die and when bearing this in mind the task became doable. So I used the task as a learning opportunity and if I had refused to go I wouldn’t have developed this understanding that is necessary when working at The Predator Sanctuary project or any zoo. It may have also affected my feelings in the future during the feedings tours when the meat is given out and made that a negative experience. The situation made me more accepting and more aware of how to deal with new and sometimes difficult situations. Showing if I can keep the positive side of things in mind, hard tasks become possible. It has also been nice being surrounded by people who all look at the optimistic side of things and this has really influenced me too. In future I always want to be able to actively look for the positive side to tasks that at first seem difficult or challenging and I have been complimented for just that!As time went on I began to feel more comfortable and became more confident within the group, making more conversations, asking more questions and trying to get to know them more. I really made an effort to involve myself when the group went out for meals or had movie nights in the house we stayed in, not staying alone in my room unless I had work to do and explaining this to them so they could see I was trying with them . They now they call me family and treat me just like anyone of them; I’m one of family, loud and talkative! I can now pick up the essence of conversations in Afrikaans if they forget which isn’t often anymore and have confidence to ask what the conservation meant in a polite and friendly way. The main thing now looking back was that although I was putting a lot of effort in trying to be nice I was always being myself and that is now one of the main reasons why I get on with everyone so well. This experience has also made me better generally in new social situations, where as I used to be very shy meeting new people now it’s nice to expand the group of people I know and can network with. At the penguins its normally a different worker every other day and at the veterinary surgery at first it was all new people for me but I now feel confident at socialising and fitting-in in a new group. At first I was homesick and missed my friends and family always being to help in any stressful situations.I now get given my own daily tasks to do and at first it was scary having this responsibility but I have been given a lot of responsibility while I have been here, for example the responsibility of walking a cheetah everyday to and from its night enclosure, ensuring the baby jaguar eats enough and gets enough exercise and attention when I am ‘baby sitting’. I also work totally alone at the penguins every day without any of the The Predator Sanctuary project team. With new people again it was at first daunting to again meet new people and try new tasks but I am now confident to get the job done and when the penguins are about to be released I can help look for any signs of illness or positive signals. So my confidence in the animals I’m working with has really grown, I came in as a novice not really knowing a lot about the animals and now I am trusted to walk with the cheetah alone every day. I get given my own tasks with each animal that I am trusted to carry out alone and can now look after the baby jaguar by myself. I am confident enough to add to the frequent animal conversations and the meetings we have once a week at about animal management and any planned tasks.I have also become more confident in problem solving and challenges. At first when given tasks or challenges I felt under pressure and didn’t want to fail. But the example used as my impact statement was a stressful situation and I learnt a lot from that and from my time at The Predator Sanctuary project learning from the guides. It has made me a lot more cool headed and enabled me to stay calm in stressful or tense situations. I now see tasks as a positive new exciting challenge and something to look forward to, not something daunting anymore. Everyday when asked to do a new task I now always try to be confident and accept it without worrying I won’t succeed, because even if I don’t it’s much more about the trying. Impact statement:Every night the guides and I walk with the two white Bengal tigers, moving them from their outdoor enclosure to their smaller indoor enclosure. I was then given the privilege to give out the treats through the fence to them while the harnesses were being put on. I was doing this for the second time and walking very close to Angelo, the male Bengal tiger when moving him across the predator park to his night enclosure. However on this particular evening, after 3 weeks of both tigers being well behaved and walking easily with the guides and me, Angelo started to become difficult to handle. The owner Jurg walked with us and was close by to give assistance, instead of taking over he calmed everybody and kept the situation under control. Instead of panicking, running or even backing off I remained calm and gave Jurg the treat bucket and the lid when asked, immediately and smoothly. Staying calm and having an experienced animal handler with us (Jurg) helped in keeping everybody focussed on the task at hand. I kept up with group, giving treats when needed, and Angelo walked to his night shelter without further incident. Afterwards a huge sigh of relief and a quick discussion of the events, why and how did it happen to ensure it does not happen again? This event will stay with me because firstly it shocked me into realising even after 3 weeks walking every morning and every night with this animals something could always go wrong and it is a very dangerous situation to be in. It will make me more cautious in future and stop me from ever thinking just because we do it every time twice a day it’s safe and normal.It will also stay with me because of my reaction, I thought I would have been petrified and crying as he was biting her but actually in the situation it felt natural to stay calm and my instincts took over. I followed orders calmly, tried to project calm emotions to the others and to Angelo and I actually felt no instinct to run and wanted to stay and help. This was surprising, before this experience if someone had said if I tiger was biting someone right next to me I would have said I would have removed me from the situation immediately. Jurg, the owner of The Predator Sanctuary project, immediately after the event congratulated me and Bianca, telling us how well we handled the situation but also saying he was so impressed with me as a volunteer, he couldn’t believe how calm and level headed I was. He thought it was one of his guides when he was asking for treats and the bucket, not me! And I think that’s one of the new skills I have learnt here, I’m much calmer and cool headed and able to deal with these kinds of situations. He said I had really proved myself that night and compared me to his top guide Darleen, the only guide he trusts 100%. This was a real compliment for me as I really look up to Darleen and admire how well she works with the animals and how calm she stays, so being told I was on the same level as her was the best compliment I could have received.



