Anri de Waal

Anri de Waal is a very special lady who has achieved great things at the Centre since she began working here in December last year. Anri started at the Centre as a tour guide, in order to complete her practical requirement for her diploma in Nature Conservation at TUT. From the start, her energetic spirit and eagerness to work hard was evident. When a curator’s assistant spot opened up, Anri was the obvious choice for the position! She began working as assistant curator on 8 April, and is loving it so far.

Here’s what Anri has to say about her day:

“I wake up at 5am to get ready for work. At 6am the day kicks off with check-up. Check-up is basically checking on the animals and unlocking gates. After check-up, it’s time to prepare for all the morning guest activities. This includes the wild dog feedings, vulture feedings and cheetah run. These activities can keep us busy the whole morning!

Anri braves the cold morning wind in her open safari

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are feeding days. On these days, we are off to feed the cheetahs, wild dogs and lions after morning activities. An hour or two after feeding we open the feeding enclosures and pick up the bones. The bones go to the vulture restaurant.

Anri feeding Ghumpie

Feeding the black-footed cats

In between morning activities and feedings we have other chores to do, like cleaning dams and checking water in the enclosures. On some days we might move a cheetah or two and do some general maintenance. We assist the vets when we have sick or injured animals and sometimes we get orphaned animals that we need to take care of.

At around 6pm it is time to go home and rest. We never know what the day will bring, all we know is that tomorrow will be another busy day!”

Anri takes Gertjie the orphaned rhino for a walk