Adventures in Africa

I am unpacking from one of my greatest adventures! I just finished up my internship in Namibia with the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF). It has been a life-long dream to visit Africa and CCF helped me make that dream come true.

This last fall I attended the Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN) expo. I remember meeting CCF and later saying to my mom how cool it would be to do and internship with them. Mom said "Why not?" I agreed.

Cheetah Check-up with Dr. Laurie Marker and Veterinarian Robin

That is how I found myself living in the middle of a desert, going to work with cheetahs every day. The cheetahs were a big part of why I decided to travel across the world to Africa, but there was so much more I got to be involved with including outreach survey data entry, cancer research with the livestock guarding dogs, giraffe counts, horn bill nest research, and leopard identification from camera traps.

Selfie with
Livestock Guarding Dog
Heideye

One of the
34 Giraffes We Counted

Selfie with a Hornbill Chick

Livestock Guarding Puppies

I ended up spending most of my time working with the livestock guarding dogs and raising the puppies. I have had a lot of experience working with  dogs. I was so pleased to be able to use my skills to help save the wild cheetahs. That is one of my favorite things about CCF. I am a small person (obviously since I fit in a suitcase) and because of this there were certain things people doubted I could do. At first, this really bothered me. I believed I could do anything if I tried hard enough, but then I was reminded no matter what my weaknesses are I have something to contribute. 

While working with CCF I made a lot of special friends. I loved mixing with all the other cultures but one special friend was Nellie the Anatolian Shepherd. Every morning I would get up extra early so we could go jogging together. She loved coming along just for the fun of it and I appreciated having her just in case I met one of the infamous leopards. One of my CCF friends warned me that I was just the proper size for a leopard snack.

Interns on Safari

Nellie the Anatolian Shepherd on our Morning Run

Some of my favorite CCF memories are going on safari. On my very last day at CCF, the ecology team took me out for one last early morning safari. One of the team members asked if we were going to see a leopard. I think she was joking because very rarely do we ever see a leopard. However, I responded with a confident "yes". It was my last day after all. As we entered the reserve we spotted one. Despite my confident answer I couldn't believe we actually got to see a leopard. I had spent my spare minutes for weeks working on identifying individual leopards from photos. Now there was a real live leopard right in front of me. It really was a dream come true.

A quote I love is "If your dreams don't scare you they aren't big enough." Flying across the world to a country where everything from the baboon spider in my bathroom sink to the acacia thorns growing everywhere are out to get you was in fact a little scary, but it was also a big dream of mine. To me it was all worth it. So I challenge you, don't just dare to dream. Dare to live your dream.