We were feeling somewhat wistful about our last game drive but a young couple had arrived the previous evening and this was their first game drive. It’s always fun to see the excitement of new guests and it was incumbent on us to orient them to the game drive routine as others had done previously for us. All of the experienced guests were leaving that day so we told Chad and Sarah they would be the new ranking members.
We saw the usual plentiful impala, warthogs, and wildebeest. When we saw the first giraffes, Sarah took a lot of pictures as we all do when we first sight them.
A little later, we encountered two giraffes near a small pond and we watched for awhile hoping they would show us how they spread their legs wide to get low enough to drink. Sarah turned to me in the rear seat and said, “What’s that on the back leg of that giraffe?” I called up to Jesse, our ranger, “Sarah wants to know what’s on the giraffe’s back leg.” Jim, sitting up front with Jesse, handed him his binoculars and Jesse announced, “That’s a snare. Poachers sneak into the reserve to snare game for food.” He got on his radio immediately then told us he’d called the reserve manager to report the finding. He said they would come out and dart the giraffe to remove the snare. Without Sarah’s sharp eyes, the snare would have eventually caused the leg to get infected and the giraffe would likely die. Sarah, on her very first game drive, saved the life of a giraffe. How cool is that?
I didn’t get a photo of the snared giraffe so here’s another.
What a lovely story am so glad Sarah spotted the snared giraffe – how horrible that poachers do these things but all’s well that ends well for this giraffe! What a beautiful photo of the other giraffe too they are magnificent creatures and it must have been wonderful to see them in their natural habitat!
Incredible trip with so many amazing things to see and experience!