New Cheetah Mum and Cubs

In October we received calls from two seperate farms in Namibia who had both captured a cheetah mother and 3 young cubs by accident and needed them to be relocated and given a safe home. 

Cheetah Care

Samira's Skin Infection

At the end of August, volunteers and staff noticed that our lovely Samira had some bad swelling on the left side of her face and neck which was growing each day and not only that, but she was starting to loose her fur in the same area. Given Samira's old age we were extremely worried and brought her in for a closer examination immediately. 

Implants for our female Wild Dogs

As our 13 male and female wild dog pups are reaching sexual maturity (which happens between the age of 12-18 months usually), we needed to implement measures to prevent the animals from breeding as breeding in captivity is illegal in Namibia. We had two options - either seperate the 8 females and 5 males by building a second camp, or giving the females contraceptives. We decided to keep the pack together and give contraceptive implants to the females. These are similar to a human form of contraceptive and take the form of a small implant which is inserted just underneath the skin. 

Farewell Old Friend

Tessa the Dog, November 2001 – September 2011

It was with great sadness that we had to say goodbye to one of the first animals to arrive at N/a’an ku se.

Animal Welfare

Our gorgeous caracal Godiva has been in the wars with feisty Yoda and suffered a broken front leg as a result. After an operation where they inserted pins to keep the bones in place together, Godiva wore a bandage and has been kept seperate from the others while she heals. Now Yoda had demonstrated his wild instincts, we're looking into whether he can be released back into the wild.

4 new kittens at N/a'an ku se

Caracal Cubs - Rocky and Ivy

It was a normal Saturday morning and several N/a'an ku se staff were making the most of a weekend off and picking up supplies in Maerua Mall. The Mall security guards told them about 2 tiny caracals who had been seen wandering around without their mother, seemingly seperated from their mother. This is an unsafe environment for 2 small cubs to be in, with no mother to guide them or direct back to their natural habitat to feed. They are also at high risk of being taken by people wanting the cubs as "pets". 

N/a'an ku se and Kosmos Open Day - Saturday 16th July

Join us at our beautiful wildlife sanctuary for the N/a’an ku se and Kosmos Open Day on Saturday 16^th July.   

The Sanctuary will be open to visitors from 09.00 – 17.00 (last entry at 15.00) and Kosmos will be broadcasting live from our luxury lodge from 10.00 – 13.00. There will be lots of food and drinks and entertainment for all the family including a jumping castle, a drawing area and the opportunity to meet our baby baboons – Carola, Shauna, Rafiki, Elvis and Rudie. 

One brave lady versus half a tonne of lion!

Friday 3^rd June 2011 will go down in history as the day that Cila took on three very large lions, and won!


Cila had set herself the fundraising challenge of a sponsored overnight sleep out in the lion camp with our three lions, Clarence, Winnie and Nancy. 


Having raised €1029 in sponsorship, Cila was ready for the challenge. So after a day spent preparing her sleeping quarters (the back of a Toyota pickup truck!) with every bit of bedding she owns, Cila was ready for the off.

Final security briefing

Locking Cila into the car!

At 4.30pm on Friday afternoon, Becca was put on gate opening duty and Jo was sent to one side of the camp to distract the lions with meat whilst Flo drove Cila into the camp on the other side. Once Cila was safely parked inside the camp Flo made a hasty exit from the camp and we waited for the lions to come back over to see what was going on. It didn’t take long for the lions interest to be piqued and they were soon back on Cila’s side of the camp, observing the proceedings from the safety of the bushes.  

Entering the camp

Flo makes a speedy exit!

The lions were initially very wary of the car and wouldn’t come near it, not even when we threw some treats into the camp for them (a horse’s head each – yum!) But once the sun went down the lions grew far bolder and ventured out of the bushes to eat the horses’s heads and have a snoop around Cila’s car. Fortunately after a few circuits of the car the lions decided they were more interested in finishing the horses’ heads and snoozing.

Cila in the camp, the challenge begins!

Here come the lions keen to see what's going on!

Despite freezing temperatures Cila managed to make a video diary of the whole night and kept the commentary going even whilst Winnie was snoozing right next door to the car!

  Watch Cila's video diary here!

At 6.00am the next morning, Cila’s challenge was completed and it was time for her to exit the camp. Unfortunately the lions were also fully awake and were all keeping a firm eye on Cila and her support team outside the camp! Plus, after their feast of horses’ heads the night before, the lions weren’t very hungry and despite Jo’s, Becca’s and Lucy’s best efforts, distracting them proved a little harder than before. Finally, after a rather nerve-racking 60 minutes, Jo, Becca and Lucy (with the aid of some chicken) were able to draw the lions away from Cila’s car long enough for her to drive out of the camp. Mission Accomplished!


We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who sponsored Cila for this sleepout. Thanks to your amazing generosity we have raised €1,029 to put towards feeding all of the animals here at N/a’an ku sê.

Click here to watch Cila’s brilliant video diary….

New Baboon Camp

The 9th of April saw the unveiling of the new camp! Many of the volunteers and staff gathered to see the baby baboons try out their new home and helped take them from their old smaller camp and move them into their new camp. They were so excited, running round and exploring! Stretching out in their new camp they adventured into their new housing and enjoyed their new play area, running and jumping and climbing! They now have much more space to run around in and monkey bars and a tyre swing to play on. The baboons looked so happy and all the volunteers and staff, whose hard work had gone into building the camp, also looked delighted!

Lightning's Success Story

In December 2009, we released one of our young leopards, Lightning, on Wilderness Safari’s Little Kulala reserve.

On Saturday 23 April this year Rudie received a phone call from Johan Steyn of Tsauchab River Camp regarding a leopard with a radio collar which he and his guests have seen regularly at Tsauchab. Rudie knew immediately that it was Lightning. Her radio collar had stopped giving out signals in January this year so all of the N/a an ku sê team were very excited to hear that, after 15 months of freedom, Lightning had been seen and that she is in good health and there is no conflict with the farmers in that area.

It is fantastic to know that Lightning can add value to Johan Steyn’s tourism market. It is a very good example of how tourism and conservation can work together and we now send all information about Lightning to Johan so that he can share it with his guests.

Elvis has not left the building – he has just arrived!

Elvis was about 4 days old when he was found on the road side clinging to his mother who had sadly been shot. The family who found him had friends with a farm in the area so gave this tiny baboon bundle to them to look after. The family looked after Elvis very well for 3 months. As time went on they started to realise how big Elvis was growing and how boisterous he would become and that, unfortunately, baboons do not make good pets. They decided to bring Elvis to N/a’an ku se where he could be looked after at our sanctuary and bond with other baboons, learn baboon traits and become part of a troop.

Elvis came to us three months ago and has grown in size and personality ever since. When he first arrived at N/a'an ku se Elvis was very shy and wary of the other baboons. However over the last few months he has become far more confident and even stands up to Carola and Shauna, the alphas in the baby baboon camp! During the day Elvis spends his time with the four other baby baboons who have all just moved into a new camp. As he is only 6 months old and at the age where he would naturally still be with his mother, our volunteers still look after him over night, giving him his evening bottle feed and taking him to sleep with them so that he feels safe. Elvis is definitely the most tactile of the baboons and loves sleeping with the volunteers; however he has recently be given a new nickname – Smelvis – as he tends to have an extremely smelly nappy in the morning!

To adopt Elvis, or any of our other baboons please email donations@naankuse.com

A New Year on the farm

It's a new and exciting year and we can't wait to see what 2011 has in store for us! But for now, here's an update on the last few months of 2010... 


Flo the machine!

July saw the arrival of 14 Wild Dog pups and with only around 250 African Wild Dogs remaining in Namibia, we have a big responsibility to look after these precious animals. We needed funds to build them a safe camp here and so brave Flo took on the challenge of a sponsored "Wild Dog Walk". 

African Wild Dogs are known to move up to 70km per day in search of food - whilst Flo does like his food, he's not usually known to go to those lengths in search of it. So taking on the challenge to walk as much of 70km in one day was a huge feat for our Head Researcher.

The walk took place on 22nd November around N/a'an ku se reserve and Flo achieved a staggering 62km in one day!!! Well done and thank you Flo for sacrificing your legs and feet for our beautiful Wild Dogs and raising over N$15,200!

If you're as impressed as we are and would still like to sponsor him, please email donations@naankuse.com

Home sweet Home

Our two special leopard cubs, Shakira and Ombeli, finally moved into their new home in December 2010. A huge thanks to everyone who donated and contributed to help us build their camp. 

After a very comfortable few months living up at Marlice’s house, a new purpose built camp was made for them near the rest of the carnivores. The 3 hectare camp gives them all the space they need (as well as giving Shakira room to eat her food in peace without Ombeli stealing it off her!) and they’re having a wonderful time exploring their new territory. 

Shaun and the volunteers still take them out for their daily walks, although now each leopard is taken on their own as they’re not so little anymore and starting to become very playful!

Baby babies...

Our baby baboon troop has grown again with two new arrivals.

Rafiki, named after the baboon in the Lion King, is 3 months old and was found clinging to his mother’s body after she had been shot.

Night time cuddles

Rafiki sleeping tight

Similarly Rudi, who is 8 weeks old, was orphaned when his mother was shot. He is the youngest baboon we have ever had on the farm.

Had these baby baboons not been brought to N/a'an ku se we dread to think what might have happened to them. 

Rudie loves bathtime!

The Senior baboons absolutely LOVE Rudie and they all scramble to get hold of him on the daily senior and baby walks. Luckily Bloomie is there to keep them in check and quickly steps in when Lala, Sarafina and Kayla fight to steal Rudie off one another. Poor Rudie is swung from one baboon to the other as everyone wants to play the mother role. 

Gizmo, our little Cape fox (silvervos) joined us late 2010 and was found on the road to Windhoek. He was only about 2 weeks old and has grown a lot since he arrived on the farm. He loves to explore everything around him. His favorite toy is empty plastic bottles and his own tale. In the morning he takes a bath and soon the sink will be too small for him.

If you would like to adopt Rudie, Rafiki, Gizmo or any of your favourite animals for just N$620 per year (approx £50/€60), email donations@naankuse.com.