Construction of Safia's temporary enclosure
In late 2009, Born Free rescued a female lion cub, named Safia. Since we had only just resolved all the land issues for the new Wildlife Centre site, we had no suitable enclosure for a seven month old cub. There was no alternative but to hastily move the spare bed into the garage, so the cub became James Young's (BF Ethiopia Project Director) house guest while we organise a temporary enclosure.
However, James and the team in Ethiopia quickly worked to find an appropriate site and appropriate materials to create a much more substantial and appropriate enclosure for Safia. This will not be her final enclosure but a stop-gap until an even larger enclosure is built in accordance with the Masterplan for the whole 77ha site.
Meanwhile, Safia continued to relax and become a calmer lion away from the prying eyes, sticks and stones or her former home.
Follow James and the Born Free Ethiopia team's construction progress in the photo-story below.
Before construction
- Machine gun bunker basically sound, but used as a public toilet for years…
- Bored machine gunners had covered the walls with graffiti.
- Perhaps predicting the future, a couple of the images looked decidedly lion-like…
- Bunker to be made into night quarters
- View from the bunker across the Wildlife Centre site to our boundary at the forest edge.
Constructing the enclosure
- Machine gun mounts took some very tough chiselling to remove.
- Holes made in bunker exterior to fit welded ties for guillotine door.
- Poles and 2.5mm chain mesh delivered
- Makeshift ladder made
- Holes dug for uprights...
- ...before uprights added
- Uprights cut to size. Poles joined with metal brackets for added strength.
- Working on the final piece of mesh
Above: Mesh enclosure almost completed. (Mesh stapled to poles and then bound to poles for added strength.)
Right:
- Bunker painted white inside and out.
- Fallen tree from another part of site placed in enclosure (cosmetic surgery to be performed).
- Metal door with viewing grill fitted to main entrance of bunker (not pictured).
- Cable with pulley attached to guillotine door. Cable lock attached to outside of enclosure. (Guillotine door has safety locking rod, operated from outside the enclosure)
Finished enclosure
- Finished enclosure!! © Jane Strachan
How you can help
Born Free Foundation is developing a Wildlife Rescue, Conservation and Education Centre, named 'Ensessakotteh' (meaning 'animal footprint') on a 77-hectare site just 23km from Addis in Ethiopia. This will provide a permanent home for Safia and other rescued animals.
Report Animal Suffering | Contact Us | eNews | WildcreW | CEO's Blog | Sitemap | About Site | Copyright
