News
Pewe and Vad visit Africa's Port Elizabeth
Scott Wagar
08/20/2013
For Marissa Pewe and Lauren Vad they were given the opportunity to spend part of their summer this year in South Africa caring for some of the country’s wildlife in the Seaview Predator Park, which is an animal sanctuary that preserves native and non-native African species which are in danger of becoming extinct or have diminishing numbers.
“My cousin Lauren and I received this African trip for Christmas,” Pewe said. “Lauren previously volunteered in Ghana and loved it, and since we both love animals we figured it was a perfect trip.”
When summer rolled around, the two girls left Bottineau for the Port Elizabeth area in the Eastern Cape Province of Cape Town within the Agloa Bay of the Indian Ocean. Once in Port Elizabeth, Pewe and Vad met up with the other volunteers of the park and made their way to the preserve to begin their work with a variety of exotic animals.
“We were volunteers at Seaview Predator Park helping care for the animals, mainly lions and tigers,” Pewe stated. “In addition, we gave tours of the park to school groups.”
Pewe added that she was surprised by the reaction of the African children who came to the park to see the animals.
“It is very interesting to see how people live in such a different country, especially when interacting with the children,” she said. “I assumed that living in Africa, kids there would know what a lion was, but many did not.”
During their time at the Seaview Predator Park, Pewe and Vad conducted a variety of different jobs.
“The preserve is always in need of volunteers to help it run smoothly, by doing things like feeding the animals, cleaning up after them and especially daily interacting with them,” Pewe said. “Each day we had a specific animal or group of animals to care for, like meerkats, servals, caracals and of course the lions and tigers.
“The two main babies we worked with were a baby lion named Igor and a baby Bengal tiger named Ice,” Pewe said. “In addition we helped out around the park and building or cleaning out enclosures.”
To understand the importance of the Seaview Predator Park, the park’s website stated that since the 1970s Africa’s wild lions have decreased by 70 to 80 percent due to poaching, a decrease in the size of their habitat and from such diseases as tuberculosis and feline AIDS.
With these numbers, the Seaview Predator Park was established and has seen great success in preserving lions along with leopards, Siberian tigers, Bengal tigers, hyenas and many more species.
Although the volunteers spent almost every minute in the park, the volunteers were given a day to tour the local area. Pewe and Vad on their day off spent time walking elephants and went bungee jumping.
With the trip over, Pewe stated she is anxious to go back.
"I enjoyed every bit of my trip, minus the very long plane rides, and would go back any day,” she said. “I would love to go back someday and see the babies all grown up.”
Pewe is a senior at Concordia college studying biology, while Vad is a 2013 graduate from the University of North Dakota with an elementary education degree.