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From April 12th till April 17th we booked a stay at Tiger Canyons. We had no clue what to expect on boarding and animal sightings. Our stay at the cottage at Philippolis (Starry Nights Karoo Cottages) was perfect: we needed a good and clean place to sleep and that it was. We drove ourselves from there back and forth to the farm, a 25min drive. We are both keen photographers/filmers and were looking forward to our stay. What we experienced in those 5 days surpassed all our expectations! Every morning we went for a walk with the tiger cubs (12 weeks old at that time). It was an experience we will never forget and, strangely though, we hope that we will never have an experience like this again. The reason for this is that JV’s goal is that tigers must roam free on the property and that they take care of themselves. Only because JV didn’t had another choice when Julie abandonned her litter, we were able to walk with them. These little cubs followed us were we went, playing along the road, trying to ambush and stalk each other and us. During the walks they were constantly vocalising with the chuffing sound to greet us, and off course, as good foster parents, we replied their calls. The highlight of our stay was swimming with them. It was the first time for them to swim in a big lake. Basically we chuffed them into the water. In the beginning they were growling and hissing at the big open water. The fact that they trusted us enough to come into the water is a feeling which can not be described easily and was a once in lifetime experience. Taking video and still photographs wasn’t easy because they are very mobile and quite unpredictable in the movements. Nevertheless we ended up with the most amazing pictures and video ever. Everything we did on the walks with the tigers was focussed on learning them about their future environment, so they gained the confidence they need to grow to be independent tigers. To witness JV’s integrity, dedication, passion and knowledge on how to raise these cubs proved us that animals come first at Tiger Canyons. We believe that these young cubs will be free roaming and self supporting in the future in JV’s large game reserve. Every afternoon we went for a game drive to see all the other tigers. We saw interaction between Ron and Shadow and we saw Seatao chasing the 28 month old sub adults out off his territory. We tried to find the litter of Shadow, but as a good mother she hid her cubs very well. We totally support JV’s motivations in this project. This is the best wild tigers can get as long as Asian national parks can not protect tigers from becoming extinct in the next decade. Yvette & Jos van Bommel
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Tread lightly on the Earth
[email protected] |
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