In the Jungle......

Many people think that when you  come to Africa you must be going on Safari.  I think our experiences in Nigeria could rival a Safari, after all, living in a place and interacting with the culture and nature for longer than a short trip around a park must leave a deeper impression.  That being said, I would really enjoy going on a Safari. A safe one.  Maybe someday I will get to go on one, but in the meantime we got to interact and see animals daily! In fact, people that come to tour are amazed at the animals that we live with there.  Some even come just to see the animals we have within the walls.  We hope that they leave with an appreciation for the work we do, but they sure are impressed with the animals!

One of the first critters to greet us in Nigeria Bethel were the Duiker Antelope.  There are perhaps dozens within the Bethel walls but a few in particular were hand reared and are not scared to be around people.  They are pretty little antelope as you can see:

One of the more wild ones had a baby while we were there, I didn't see it at it's very smallest but I think I took this picture within the first week of it's being born:

 The adult Duikers are not very tall, perhaps they come to knee height on an average size guy.  So their babies are tiny!  So cute.  Matt said it's about the size of a Chihuahua.

Much more rare to see around are the bushbucks.  I had seen one a couple times but Matt had not so one evening we went to take a walk to an area they are most likely to hang out in: 

They are very shy, but so beautiful!

There are many other animals that have been observed or rescued by the international team over the years.  They had a pet civet for awhile, also they rescued a potto.  A potto looks a bit like a tailless lemur but it is a whole different species we were told.  It lives in the trees and somehow found itself on the roof of one of the residences.  He was rescued and returned to the trees.  It happened while we were there but I didn't get to see it except in a picture.  Which I do not have, so you can google the potto. :)  

There is also a hand reared monkey named Darragh.

He is a year old and quite mischievous.   A sister that used to be in Nigeria on construction saved him when he was a baby and bottle fed him.  He will let you hold him and play with him, but I didn't.  I don't love monkeys as a general rule. He might be my favorite yet. Top two including the one that's in the next post.  I did love watching him play, he was really funny.  However, I was more than content to simply watch.  I didn't think I could emotionally handle it if I got a scratch or bite.  :D Even though it's fine, my  mind was more at ease simply to just enjoy him from a reasonable distance.

There is another resident monkey, I will save him for the next post.  

Thanks for reading!