Caged Humans

I'm writing from a library at Sumner Beach, Christchurch. Since the last posting, I visited the Orana Wildlife Park and hiked through the Peel Forest.

At Orana we participated in a bizarre experience which involved a truck, a cage, and a few hungry lions. We paid for this, for some reason, and our adrenals I hope are no less worse for the wear. We boarded a truckbed-turned-cage, huddled in the center, and watched wide-eyed as the truck entered the lion reserve and several hungry lions hopped on. We were instructed to not stick any appendages outside the open cage squares. Some of the lions clutched to the cage with their paws and pressed their open-mouthed muzzles to the bars. The handler, inside the cage with us, threw pieces of bloody raw horsemeat (sorry, my horse-loving friends) into their open mouths. He also offered them meat with the flat of his palm, so that the large felines could only tongue up their dinner and not his fingers. Although he had a zoology degree, he said he only needed a one-year certificate having to do with the care of captive animals. Is a career change in order for me? What do you think, Mom?

As an aside, one of the male lions recently choked on a piece of horsemeat, and the park will now have to purchase one by mail-order.

I also fed some cute giraffes. One reached his tongue out to lick my shirt, as it missed the leafy vine I was holding out to him. I fed a cute calf. And, I saw some really cool lemurs and meerkats!