We had to clean feeding troughs. Due to the rain these troughs are at risk of growing deadly parasites.
We heaved these into the back of the trailer and went to the water tank to clean with soapy water. These were all then put back in the enclosure. Finally some hands on heavier work.
We collected frozen chickens from 3 farms. These were young chickens who had died of natural causes. We heaved up the black bags of chickens into the ute (unfortunately we did not have a trailer) so we had to sit one end of the tray with frozen chickens at the other.
At one farm the chickens were not in bags. We had to count them and throw them into the tray. 437 frozen chickens later and we drive back to Ukutula. Was a fun ride with frozen chickens getting moved around from the bumpy road.
After lunch we were told we get to fed the lions. This was very exciting.
We started by throwing frozen chickens into the younger lions over the high fence in order to get them into one enclosure. We then went into the other enclosure and emptied out a couple of bags of chicken, just for a snack.
The lions were let into this enclosure. We heard them growling each other and swiping at one another when they came towards their food. This was amazing.
We then threw some chickens to the adult hyenas before moving onto the adult male white lions.
These two lions were in seperate enclosures however they wanted them together. They had never shared an enclosure before and the best way for this to happen was for them to share a meal. We put lots of chicken into one enclosure and let them both in. The elder male went straight to the food and did not care about his new roommate. The slightly younger male decided to walk around and mark his territory.
The Rangers that we were with after 30mins explained that they would now be fine together as they have not fought yet.
This was a great experience to see lions interacting and eating how they would in the wild.